THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


, 


BUD     ROBINSON 


SUNSHINE 


SMILES 


BY  BUD  ROBINSON 


1802 

Holiness  Advocate, 
GreenYille,  Texas. 


DEDICATION. 


I  lovingly  dedicate  this  book  to  the 
human  family,  to  whom  I  am  indebt- 
-xi  for  every  idea  expressed  in  it,  for  when 
I  came  into  this  world  I  knew  nothing  at 
ill,  not  even  the  way  to  my  mouth. 

Yours   for   the    glory    of    God    and   the 
of  Humanity. 

Brn  ROBINSON. 


SKETCH  OF  MY  LIFE. 


I  moved  to  America  on  January  27th,  1860.  I 
£2  met  a  cold  reception,  of  course,  as  the  snow  wa* 
•5*  something  like  knee  deep  and  I  was  very  thinly 
^  clad,  just  having  the  suit  that  nature  provided  for 
**  me.  I  settled  in  White  county,  Tennessee.  My 
3  first  employment  was  to  work  for  my  living,  and 
my  mother  said  I  was  a  good  rustler,  but  I  used  uf 
o»  my  income  as  fast  as  I  got  it,  as  I  continue  to  tf< 
ir>  until  this  good  day. 

My  baby  buggy  was  not  a  carriage  but  a  ho>- 

low  log,  about  four  feet  long,  split  open,  making  * 

nice  little  trough,  with  an  old  quilt  in  it  and  a  pi) 

§    low.     I  spent  several  months  as  happy  as  a  lark 

K    My  mother  sat  by  me  and  carded  wool  and  cottoi 

rolls  to  spin  her  thread.     As  mother  sat  there  o? 

m    the  old  log  fire  and  sung  the  swe0test  old  songs  « 

"Z.    the  world,  I  had  nothing  to  do  but  lie  there  in  tn» 

•£    little  cradle — as  it  was  called — and  listen  to  mothe 

sing,  play  with  my  hands,  suck  my  thumb  and  p> 

451838 


4  SUNSHINE   AND   SMILES 

to  sleep.  As  mother  carded  she  rocked  the  cradle 
with  her  foot,  looked  down  into  the  trough  and 
talked  all  kinds  of  baby  talk  to  me  and  said  many 
a  time  that  "Little  Buddie  was  sure  to  make  his 
mark  in  the  world." 

Well,  my  friends,  I  want  to  stop  long  enough 
to  tell  you  I  made  the  mark ;  it  was  a  long,  black, 
crooked  one.  The  hope  of  the  race  is  the  confi 
dence  a  mother  puts  in  her  children.  Every  true 
mother  can  see  something  in  her  boy  that  other 
people  can't  see.  The  reason  we  can't  see  some 
thing  in  them  is  because  they  are  not  our  boys. 
The  reason  she  does  is  because  he  is  her  boy.  She 
looks  beyond  his  misfortunes  and  sees  in  him  great 
possibilities  and  in  her  heart  full  of  love  she  knows 
that  success  is  sure  to  come — with  the  smile  of  hope 
on  her  face  she  sees  fortune  just  ahead. 

By  this  time  you  are  anxious  to  know  whether 
or  not  the  baby  boy  ever  got  out  of  the  hollow  log. 
Of  course  he  did;  don't  you  know  that  you  can't 
keep  a  boy  forever  in  a  hollow  log?  and  I  told  you 
at  the  start  that  the  log  was  only  four  feet  long.  I 
soon  outgrew  it  and  mother  had  to  put  breeches  on 
me  and  turn  me  loose  with  the  other  children. 
About  this  time  in  life  recollection  came  into  use; 
the  first  thing  I  remember  was  the  soldiers  going 
by  with  blue  coats  on,  the  next  thing  was  my 
mother  coming  through  the  cornfield  shouting. 
She  was  coming  from  the  spring  that  was  over  at 
the  back  of  the  little  corn  field — it  was  one  of  those 


SUNSHINE   AND   SMILES  5 

beautiful  springs  flowing  out  from  under  the  great 
mountain,  as  clear  as  crystal  and  so  cold  it  would 
make  your  teeth  ache,  just  running  over  the  white 
sand  and  gravel,  sunperch,  red  bass  and  speckled 
trout  playing  under  the  rocks  that  stuck  out  over 
the  branch  all  covered  with  ferns  and  mountain 
mass.  Surely  that  was  one  of  the  prettiest  places 
in  the  world,  and  while  mother  was  over  there  get 
ting  water,  the  same  Christ  that  met  the  woman  at 
the  well,  met  mother,  and  while  she  was  filling  her 
bucket  with  water,  the  Lord  filled  her  soul  with 
grace,  and  she  came  through  the  field  with  her 
bucket  in  one  hand,  waving  the  other  over  her  head 
praising  the  Lord.  Occasionally  she  would  set  the 
bucket  down  and  go  to  clapping  her  hands  and 
shouting  in  the  old  style.  It  was  Glory!  Glory!! 
Hallelujah,  Bless  God  forever!  We  children  ran 
out  and  climbed  up  on  the  yard  fence,  where  we 
could  just  see  mother's  head  as  she  jumped  up  and 
down  in  the  corn  rows.  She  came  on  to  the  house 
bare  headed,  had  spilt  nearly  all  the  water  and  lost 
her  bonnet,  but  she  had  a  shine  on  her  face  I  never 
will  forget.  I  was  at  that  time  about  four  years 
old,  and  mother's  shouting  put  me  under  such  deep 
conviction  I  had  no  rest  from  the  sense  of  guilt  and 
condemnation.  I  wanted  religion  worse  than  any 
thing  in  the  world.  I  well  remember  going  down 
into  the  apple  orchard,  getting  down  on  my  knees 
under  the  old  horse-apple  tree  to  pray.  I  don't 
know  why  I  didn't  get  religion  unless  it  was  be- 


6  SUNSHINE   AND    SMILES 

cause  of  the  wickedness  of  ray  father.  He  was 
very  profane  and  would  come  in  the  house  and 
swear  bitterly.  This  would  excite  me  very  much 
and  for  the  time  being  I  would  forget  the  struggles 
of  my  poor  little  heart.  There  are  pictures  that 
remain  in  the  child's  memory  like  burs  in  a  sheep's 
wool;  the  next  one  that  took  fast  hold  of  mine  was 
a  difficulty  between  mother  and  a  Yankee  soldier. 
My  father  had  been  run  off  from  home  and  all  the 
horses  taken  but  one  old  sorrel  mare  with  a  blaze 
face  and  one  eye  out,  "Old  Gin"  we  called  her. 
Mother  and  we  children  hauled  wood  on  the  sled 
with  "Old  Gin."  One  morning  mother  went  out 
to  feed  her  and  the  Yankee  soldier  told  her  to  feed 
that  mare  well,  for  he  expected  to  ride  her  that  day. 
Of  course  the  war  opened  right  there.  Mother  told 
him  never  in  this  world  would  he  ride  "Old  Gin." 
She  fed  the  mare  and  we  children  stayed  out  in  the 
yard  to  see  whether  or  not  the  Yankee  was  coming 
to  get  her.  About  the  time  "Old  Gin"  finished  up 
her  breakfast  the  Yankee  was  at  the  barn  door 
with  mother  and  us  children,  and  the  circus  opened 
up.  He  opened  the  barn  door  and  went  in  to  put 
the  bridle  on  the  mare  and  mother  took  it  off.  He 
began  to  curse  and  mother  was  shaking  her  fist  in 
his  face,  calling  him  all  sorts  of  hard  names.  He 
put  the  bridle  on  again  and  mother  pulled  it  off. 
By  this  time  he  was  pretty  hot,  and  jerked  an  old 
pistol  out  of  his  belt  and  we  children  began  to 
scream  as  loud  as  we  could  and  hold  to  mother's 


SUNSHINE   AND    SMILES  7 

dress.  He  swung  the  revolver  over  his  head, 
and  cursed.  By  this  time  mother  was  at  white 
heat  and  hit  him  right  over  the  head  and  face  with 
the  bridle  just  as  hard  as  she  could  put  it  on  him. 
Then  the  regular  fight  took  place;  they  clenched 
and  scuffled  over  the  barn  for  some  little  time  while 
we  children  were  almost  having  spells.  Finally  he 
shoved  mother  up  against-  the  barn  door  and  hurt 
her  side,  and  before  she  could  regain  her  strength 
and  renew  the  battle  he  had  put  the  bridle  on  "Old 
Gin,"  led  her  out  of  the  barn  and  was  riding  away. 
Mother  stood  in  the  barn  door,  shaking  her  fist 
after  him  and  saying  in  a  loud  voice:  "You'd 
better  get  a  good  ride  today,  because  this  is  the  last 
day  you  will  ever  ride  'Old  Gin,'  for  if  God  spares 
my  life  I  will  have  old  Pleas  Parr  and  the  Texas 
Guerrillas  on  your  track  before  night."  He 
laughed  at  her  and  rode  on.  Of  course  mother  was 
only  threatening  him,  as  she  had  no  idea  that  the 
guerrillas  were  anywhere  in  the  country.  So  the 
little  squad  of  Yankee  soldiers — about  seventy -five 
in  number — went  on  up  the  road  about  twelve  miles 
from  our  house  on  the  little  Calf  Killer  river,  stop 
ping  at  a  house  where  there  was  a  sick  woman  and 
a  lot  of  old  women  had  gathered  in  to  wait  on  her. 
The  soldiers  began  to  exchange  horses  with  the 
women  without  their  consent  and  put  some  of  them 
to  cooking  dinner  for  them.  While  they  were  eat 
ing,  swapping  horses  and  mistreating  the  old 
women,  old  Pleas  Parr  and  his  band  of  Texas  guer- 


8  SUNSHINE  AND   SMILES 

rillas  came  across  the  mountains  from  East 
Tennessee,  ran  up  on  them  and  surely  made  it  hot 
for  the  boys.  Pleas  Parr  and  his  men  fought 
under  the  black  flag.  They  never  gave  nor  took 
prisoners,  and  they  had  six  shooters  belted  on  them 
from  their  necks  to  their  knees.  I  expect  the 
Texas  guerrillas,  as  they  were  called,  were  among 
the  worst  men  in  the  world.  At  their  appearance 
the  blue  coats  leaped  in  their  saddles  and  went 
down  the  road  at  full  speed,  the  guerrillas  after 
them.  Every  few  hundred  yards  they  would  shoot 
one  off  his  horse  and  some  one  of  the  band  would 
get  down  and  cut  off  his  head.  By  the  time  they 
had  reached  our  place  they  had  killed  most  all  the 
soldiers.  They  went  by  at  full  speed  with  their 
horses  covered  with  foam  and  dust,  their  mouths 
open  and  tongues  out,  with  the  sound  of  revolvers 
every  minute,  men  hollering  and  pleading  for  their 
lives.  What  a  sad  day.  God  forbid  that  we  should 
ever  see  another  like  it.  As  they  came  near  our 
house  "Old  Gin"  left  the  main  road,  turned  round 
the  corner  of  the  field  and  coming  to  a  deep  gully 
tried  to  jump  it,  but  failed  and  went  head  foremost 
hi  the  gully  right  on  top  of  the  soldier  that  had 
whipped  mother  that  morning.  The  guerrillas  sup 
posing  they  had  killed  both  horse  and  rider,  went 
on  after  the  rest.  After  they  had  all  passed  by 
the  soldier  got  out  of  the  gully,  ran  through  th« 
field  and  made  his  escape.  Mother  and  we  chil 
dren  went  down  and  got  "Old  Gin,"  led  her  to  the 


SUNSHINE  AND   SMILES  9 

house,  bound  up  her  limbs,  carried  her  water  and 
worked  with  her  for  a  week  before  she  was  suffi 
ciently  recovered  from  her  ride  to  assume  her  dut 
ies.  That  soldier  may  have  forgotten  some  things 
in  his  life  but  there  is  one  day's  work  that  will 
never  be  erased  from  his  memory.  The  day  he 
whipped  mother,  took  "Old  Gin"  and  met  the 
Texas  crowd,  will  remain  fresh  in  his  memory  until 
he  meets  his  black  box,  and  all  the  preachers  in 
the  world  will  never  be  able  to  convince  that  fellow 
that  mother  was  not  to  blame  for  the  whole  affair. 
I  can  just  see  that  poor  man  now  out  in  the  moun 
tains  that  night,  under  a  rock  raking  up  a  few 
leaves  to  make  him  a  bed,  goes  to  sleep  about  mid 
night,  cursing  rebels,  and  in  his  dreams  he  sees 
women  and  children,  blazed  face  horses,  bridles, 
pistols,  Texas  guerrillas,  deep  gulleys  and  such 
like. 

About  this  time  in  my  life  my  mother  had  a 
strange  dream  about  me.  She  dreamed  she  had  to 
offer  me  as  a  sacrifice  on  the  altar  just  as  Abraham 
offered  Isaac,  and  that  I  was  to  be  offered  for  the 
whole  family,  and  without  it  the  family  would  be 
lost.  In  her  dream  she  built  the  altar,  bound  me, 
laid  me  on  the  altar  and  the  Lord  told  her  to  take 
my  life.  She  screamed  and  plead  with  the  Lord  to 
spare  me,  awoke  and  rejoiced  to  find  it  only  a 
dream,  went  back  to  sleep  and  dreamed  the  same 
thing  again,  and  in  the  last  dream  she  saw  that  all 
the  suffering  that  could  be  put  on  me  didn't  seen 


10  SUNSHINE  AND   SMILES 

to  take  my  life  and  that  mine  was  to  be  a  life  of 
suffering  and  sacrifice  and  through  my  suffering 
the  rest  of  the  family  was  to  be  brought  to  Christ. 
This  dream  made  a  great  impression  on  my  mind; 
it  renewed  conviction  and  created  such  a  desire  in 
my  heart  for  religion  that  I  never  could  wear  it  off, 
and  with  all  the  fun — as  I  called  it — in  my  life  I 
was  never  easy  until  the  night  I  was  converted — in 
my  21st  year.  No  one  could  persuade  mother  her 
dream  has  not  been  fulfilled  in  her  Buddie's  life.  I 
will  leave  it  for  others  who  know  me  to  judge. 

In  my  fifth  year  the  war  was  over,  our  father 
had  come  home,  sold  out  his  land  and  bought  wag 
ons  and  horses  and  we  prepared  to  move  to  Missis 
sippi.  "We  left  the  mountains  of  Tennessee  in  the 
fall  of  1865  and  just  before  Christmas  we  landed  in 
Tipper  county,  Mississippi,  settled  on  the  little  Tal- 
lahassie  river,  where  there  were  more  fish  and 
mud  turtles,  mosquitoes  and  water  moccasins  than 
any  place  in  America.  We  stayed  in  Mississippi 
four  years.  The  first  year  was  one  of  misfortune 
and  hardship;  our  horses  all  died  with  blind  stag 
gers.  My  father  rented  a  farm  from  a  man  who 
was  to  furnish  us  teams.  When  the  crop  was 
planted  the  man  went  back  on  his  contract  and  he 
and  my  father  had  trouble — he  was  a  very  mean 
caan  and  my  father  was  just  as  mean  as  he.  After 
oay  father  lost  his  crop  he  rented  a  still  from  a  man 
«id  went  to  making  whiskey.  He  did  not  work  at 
"-hat  long  until  he  and  the  man  who  owned  the  still 


SUNSHINE  AND   SMILES  11 

had  trouble,  fought  and  came  near  killing  each 
other.  That  was  another  dark  day.  By  the  time 
we  were  through  with  the  whiskey  business  all  of 
our  property  was  gone  but  one  wagon  and  two  milk 
cows,  and  now  he  traded  the  cows  for  a  little  yoke 
of  steers  and  moved  out  into  the  pinery  and  went 
to  burning  tar  for  a  living,  which  was  a  very  hard 
life.  There  are  not  many  boys  nowadays  that  ever 
saw  a  tar  kiln.  First  you  go  through  the  woods 
and  gather  up  the  pine  knots  and  pile  them  in  piles, 
then  go  back  over  the  ground  with  your  wagon  and 
haul  your  knots  to  the  kiln,  then  split  up  your 
knots  and  build  a  tar  kiln,  and  burn  and  get  the 
tar  out.  I  will  not  go  into  detail  and  try  to  explain 
the  process  of  burning  the  kiln,  but  it  was  a  very 
hard  job  and  the  dirtiest  work  in  the  world.  We 
were  in  the  tar  business  three  years.  We  generally 
built  about  three  kilns  a  year  and  would  run  from 
five  to  six  hundred  gallons  out  of  a  kiln  and  sell  it 
for  about  40  cents  per  gallon.  It  was  used  all  over 
the  country  for  axle  grease,  every  wagon  having  a 
tar  gourd  hanging  on  the  coupling  pole.  We  spent 
the  wet  weather  and  Sundays  hunting  and  fishing. 
The  woods  were  full  of  deer  and  turkeys.  You 
could  hear  the  turkeys  gobbling  every  morning 
and  any  where  you  went  you  would  see  a  deer  run 
across  the  road.  We  caught  fish  and  swamp  rab 
bits,  killed  snakes  until  we  quit  numbering,  ate 
muscadines,  fought  mosquitoes  and  ticks,  and  I 
reckon  had  the  hardest  and  biggest  chills  in  Miss- 


12  SUNSHINE  AND  SMILES 

issippi.  We  children  passed  off  the  time  at  night 
sitting  by  a  big  fire  built  of  pine  knots,  telling  rid- 
dies  and  chewing  pine  wax. 

At  the  end  of  our  four  years*  struggle  we 
reached  the  fall  of  '69  and  with  a  few  household 
goods  on  the  old  wagon,  the  little  steers  hitched  to 
it,  a  big  tar  gourd  full  of  tar  swung  in  on  the  coup 
ling  pole,  mother  on  the  wagon  with  the  baby  on 
her  lap  and  seven  other  children  either  on  the 
wagon  or  afoot  playing  along  the  road,  we  now  bid 
the  old  Tallahassie  and  the  swamps  of  the  Miss-* 
issippi  a  hearty  farewell.  We  are  now  on  the  road 
for  the  mountains  of  old  Tennessee  again.  My 
father  walks  ahead  of  the  wagon  with  a  musket  on 
his  shoulder,  my  oldest  brother  drives  the  little 
steers.  We  children  ride  time  about,  three  or  four 
on  the  WBgon,  the  others  walking  up  the  sandy 
road  playing  in  the  sand  or  stopping  under  the 
chestnut  trees  and  picking  up  chestnuts,  or  climb 
ing  the  fence  and  getting  into  some  fellow's 
orchard.  We  would  strike  up  camps  on  some  little 
creek  or  at  some  spring,  a  little  before  sundown, 
unyoke  and  feed  "Nig"  and  "Jerry"  (the  litttle 
oxen),  build  a  big  chunk  fire,  then  we  boys  were 
up  the  creek  with  our  dog  in  a  few  minutes  to  see 
if  we  couldn't  start  a  rabbit.  It  was  "seek,  seek, 
there  he  goes,"  and  away  Dixie  would  go  after 
him.  In  a  few  moments  he  runs  him  into  a  hollow 
tree  or  log.  We  chop  him  out  so  quick  it  would 
make  your  head  swim.  We  are  now  back  with  the* 


BUNSHWE  AND  SMILES  18 

Babbit,  dressing  him  for  supper.  Mother  brings 
the  skillet  and  lid  out  of  the  Wagon,  puts  them  on 
the  fire,  and  while  they  are  heating  she  brings  out 
the  corn  meal,  bread  tray  and  sifter.  Now  she 
puts  the  skillet  on  coals  of  fire  and  proceeds  to 
make  up  her  bread.  She  sifts  the  meal  in  the  big 
tray  and  makes  up  the  dough  With  her  hands*  puts 
three  nice  pones  in  the  skillet,  puts  on  the  lid, 
putting  coals  on  that.  She  then  gets  the  frying 
pan  out  of  the  wagon  and  goes  to  frying  the  rabbit. 

Now,  reader,  just  think  of  it!  Old  fashioned 
corn  bread  cooked  in  a  skillet  and  fried  rabbit  for 
supper!  My,  my,  I  can  just  smell  that  rabbit  and 
taste  that  corn  bread  until  now.  That  night  was 
thirty -three  years  ago.  It  seems  to  be  only  yes* 
terday.  I  can  just  see  the  little  creek  and  the  old 
\vater  elm  standing  by  the  ford,  Dixie  lying  under 
the  wagon,  the  little  oxen  having  eaten  their  sup 
per,  lying  down  to  rest.  Now  mother  brings  out 
an  old  quilt  or  two,  makes  a  big  pallet  by  the  fire. 
A  dozen  or  more  little  red  feet  are  turned  to  the 
chunk  fire  and  we  are  off  to  the  land  of  dreams. 

About  the  break  of  day  we  hear  father  calling 
"Boys!  boys!!  It  is  time  to  get  up  and  make  a 
fire  and  feed  the  steers."  So  in  a  few  minutes  we 
are  up  throwing  the  chunks  together  and  shucking 
corn  for  Nig  and  Jerry.  While  mother  is  getting 
breakfast  we  cut  a  pole  about  fifteen  feet  long  and 
a  little  short  fork  about  three  feet  long  to  grease 
the  wagon  with.  We  run  one  end  of  the  long  pole 


14  SUNSHINE  AND   SMILES 

under  the  wagon  and  three  or  four  of  us  boys  get 
under  the  other  end  and  raise  the  wagon  and  put 
the  little  fork  under  to  hold  it  up.  We  now  get  the 
wagon  hammer  and  drive  out  the  lynch  pin,  take 
off  the  wheel  and  get  the  tar  gourd  off  of  the  coup 
ling  pole,  and  with  a  little  paddle  we  put  the  tar  on 
the  axle  and  a  few  paddles  full  in  the  wheel  to  make 
it  run  light  during  the  day,  and  by  night  you  could 
hear  it  squeak  a  quarter  of  a  mile.  The  next 
morning  we  would  have  to  tar  up  again.  We  kept 
this  up  every  morning  for  three  weeks  until  we 
reached  the  Tennessee  mountains.  I  remember  as 
we  went  through  Alabama,  in  one  of  the  little  towns 
two  negro  men  gave  us  a  cursing  and  called  us 
"poor  white  trash"  and  pretended  they  were  going 
to  ride  over  the  wagon.  I  couldn't  blame  the  boys 
much.  We  surely  did  look  pretty  tough.  But 
mother  couldn't  stand  it.  She  got  the  old  musket 
out  of  the  back  end  of  the  wagon  and  loaded  it  up. 
She  put  in  a  hand  full  of  powder,  put  a  wad  of 
paper  in  on  it  and  beat  it  down  with  the  ram  rod, 
then  put  in  sixteen  buckshot  and  a  little  paper  on 
that.  While  she  was  getting  the  box  of  caps  the 
colored  boys  had  business  up  the  lane.  I  tell  you 
mother  was  one  of  the  pluckiest  little  rebels  you 
ever  saw.  Lee  surrendered  in  1865  but  it  was  many 
years  later  when  Mother  Robinson  surrendered. 
I  think  she  could  see  blue  overcoats  and  muskets 
in  her  dreams,  until  the  year  Bros'.  H.  C.  Morrison 
and  Joe  McClurkan  run  the  Waco  Holiness  Camp 


SUNSHINE  AND  SMILES  15 

Meeting,  when  mother  got  so  happy  in  the  experi 
ence  of  full  salvation  that  she  lost  her  little  black 
bonnet,  her  handbag  and  her  prejudice,  and  hasn't 
seen  the  Mason  and  Dixon  line  since. 

We  reached  the  mountains  of  Tennessee  just 
before  Christmas  in  1869  and  settled  in  a  little  cove 
or  valley  between  two  great  mountains.  Here  we 
made  headquarters  until  1876.  The  mountain  life 
is  a  very  peculiar  one.  A  fellow  has  to  live  there 
to  understand  the  situation.  Thirty  odd  years  ago 
the  mountains  surely  were  a  rough  place.  We  had 
almost  as  great  a  war  in  1872  and  1873  as  we  did  in 
1862  and  1863,  when  Uncle  Sam  was  setting  the 
negroes  free.  In  '72  and  '73  he  was  collecting  the 
revenue  on  whiskey  and  brandy.  You  see  we 
mountaineers  made  corn  whiskey  for  25  cents  per 
gallon  and  apple  brandy  for  50  cents  per  gallon, 
and  of  course  when  Uncle  Sam  came  in  and  put  a 
revenue  on  corn  whiskey  of  50  cents  and  apple 
brandy  of  75  cents  per  gallon,  when  we  were  only 
getting  25  cents  for  whiskey  and  50  cents  for  bran 
dy,  he  met  a  hostile  people.  There  was  war  as 
soon  as  the  first  officer  arrived.  Those  mountain 
eers  clubbed  together,  and  got  in  their  old  log 
houses  with  their  muskets  and  citizens'  rifles.  If 
you  don't  think  they  killed  men  by  the  hundreds, 
you  ask  Uncle  Sam.  Within  five  miles  of  our 
house  there  were  ten  stills  running  day  and  night 
the  year  round,  and  of  course  the  country  was 
flooded  with  whiskey.  The  whiskey  peddlers  called 


16  SUNSHINE  AND   SMILES 

at  our  door  every  day,  and  with  their  ox  cart  load 
ed  with  whiskey  sold  it  out  for  country  pro 
duce — chickens,  eggs,  corn,  potatoes,  or  anything 
the  people  raised.  We  bought  and  used  it  like 
milk  and  thought  it  was  the  remedy  for  every  dis 
ease  known  to  the  human  family.  A  man  couldn't 
be  born,  married  or  die  without  it,  and  every  boy 
in  the  country  was  drunk  two  or  three  times  a  week., 
and  we  thought  nothing  of  it.  From  the  time  little 
boys  were  ten  years  old  they  were  getting  drunk. 

Churches  or  schools  were  almost  a  thing  un 
known  at  that  time.  Civilization  had  not  then 
reached  the  mountains.  Railroads,  steam  engines, 
buggies  or  carriages,  and  houses  of  lumber  were 
things  unknown  in  my  boyhood  days.  Our  houses 
were  made  of  logs  and  the  cracks  between  were 
daubed  with  mud.  Our  chimneys  were  made  of 
sticks  and  mud.  The  floors  were  made  of  punch 
eons,  or  dirt,  without  a  window  in  the  house.  The 
roofing  was  of  oak  boards,  three  or  four  feet  long, 
split  out  by  hand.  Our  hauling  was  done  on  sleds 
and  ox  carts.  Our  bread  stuff  was  made  at  the  lit 
tle  water  mill  down  the  creek,  where  we  boys  used 
to  go  and  stay  almost  all  day  waiting  for  our  turn, 
as  it  would  take  from  two  to  three  hours  to  grind 
one  sack  of  corn.  "We  boys  would  spend  the  time 
in  fishing,  playing  marbles  or  talking  with  the  old 
men. 

Our  clothing  was  homemade.  Mother  spun 
and  wove  our  clothes  and  made  every  garment  we 


BUD  ROBINSON'S  MOTHER 


SUNSHINE  AND   SMILES  17 

wore  by  hand.  I  was  nearly  seventeen  years  old 
when  I  saw  my  first  sewing  machine.  Mother  wove 
jeans  every  fall  to  make  our  winter  clothing,  and 
cotton  checks  and  cottonades  every  spring  for 
shirts  and  pants.  When  we  had  shoes  mother  knit 
our  socks,  but  we  were  not  troubled  with  shoes 
often.  I  had  only  worn  out  about  one  pair  when  I 
was  big  enough  to  go  see  the  girls,  and  the  girls  in 
the  mountains  of  Tennessee  were  as  bad  off  as  we 
boys.  They  did  not  have  their  little  feet  all 
cramped  up  with  shoe  leather,  so  we  just  sparked 
barefooted  and  had  no  idea  we  needed  shoes  to 
spark  in.  We  were  all  on  the  same  platform,  and 
such  a  thing  as  going  to  church  or  Sunday  school 
never  entered  our  heads. 

I  was  a  man  with  beard  on  my  face  the  first 
Sunday  school  I  ever  saw.  There  were  but  few 
people  that  could  read  or  write  among  the  poorer 
people,  and  morality  was  at  a  very  low  ebb.  The 
most  of  the  young  women  were  raising  families 
"without  the  incumbrance  of  a  husband."  It  was 
a  very  common  thing  when  a  neighbor  called  for 
him  to  ask  if  "you  had  heard  that  John  and  Sal  had 
'took  up'  together."  This  was  their  style  of  mat 
rimony.  Without  the  expense  of  a  license  or  a 
preacher  they  just  "took  up  together."  "John 
and  Sal"  might  be  a  boy  and  girl,  or  perhaps  the 
father  and  mother  in  different  families  that  lived  in 
the  neighborhood,  and  they  seemed  to  be  about  as 
well  respected  as  any  body  else.  I  have  been  in 


18  SUNSHINE  AND   SMILES 

homes  where  the  mother  had  eleven  or  twelve  chil 
dren,  their  oldest  daughter  three  children,  the  sec 
ond  daughter  two,  the  third  one  child,  and  the 
whole  family  would  live  in  from  one  to  two  little 
rooms,  made  of  logs  with  dirt  floor  and  from  one  to 
two  old  bed  steads,  without  a  cooking  stove.  One 
or  two  chairs  and  an  old  bench  constituted  the  fur 
niture,  but  any  number  of  neighbors  were  pressed 
to  spend  the  night  and  often  accepted  the  proffered 
hospitality.  Some  one  will  say  "Where  on  earth 
did  that  crowd  sleep?"  Well,  now  reader,  that  is  a 
secret  that  belongs  to  us  mountain  folks.  But  if 
you  will  promise  never  to  tell  anybody  I  will  make 
it  so  plain  to  you  that  you  can  never  forget  it. 

Now,  did  you  ever  throw  down  four  or  five  old 
sheep  skins  and  an  old  quilt  or  two  and  just  see 
how  many  children  you  could  put  down  on  them? 
"Well,"  you  say,  "but  what  did  they  do  for  pil 
lows?"  Well,  now  friend,  if  you  go  to  wanting 
pillows  you  had  better  stay  out  of  the  mountains  of 
Tennessee. 

There  was  but  little  money  in  circulation  at 
that  time.  In  fact  we  did  not  need  much  money — 
there  was  little  to  buy  in  the  country.  The  men 
tanned  their  leather  and  made  their  own  shoes  at 
home,  the  women  made  the  clothing,  and  the  peo 
ple  raised  everything  they  ate.  We  raised  corn 
and  wheat,  potatoes,  cabbage,  fruit  and  berries  in 
?reat  quantities.  Our  hogs  got  fat  every  fall  on 
che  acorns  and  chestnuts  in  the  mountains,  and  our 


SUNSHINE  AND   SMILES  19 

'possums  got  fat  on  the  persimmons.  We  gener 
ally  lived  on  'possum  most  of  the  fall  season.  The 
young  man  that  couldn't  twist  a  'possum  out  of  a 
hollow  log  and  dress  him  nice  was  no  catch  at  all 
with  the  mountain  girls,  and  the  boy  who  had  a 
good  possum  dog  was  considered  first  choice.  And 
I  want  the  reader  to  remember  now  and  forever 
hereafter  that  in  my  day  on  the  old  Cumberland 
mountains  there  was  nothing  in  this  world  equal  to 
possum  and  sweet  potatoes.  You  see,  we  had 
great  big  fire  places  six  or  seven  feet  long,  and  we 
would  roll  on  a  great  back  log  two  feet  through, 
put  on  a  big  forestick  and  then  pile  on  a  big  lot  of 
little  wood  and  just  build  up  a  log  heap.  We  then 
dressed  the  old  'possum  nice,  put  him  into  an  old- 
fashioned  oven,  put  the  fire  all  around  him  and 
bring  in  a  peck  of  yellow  yam  potatoes,  put  them 
in  the  fire  and  cover  them  up  with  hot  ashes.  We 
children  would  sit  up,  tell  riddles  and  play  blind 
fold  until  the  old  possum  would  get  done. 

Now,  reader,  just  think  of  our  satisfaction  as 
mother  takes  the  lid  off  of  the  oven  and  we  smell 
the  'possum  and  see  him  brown  and  juicy  in  the 
big  old  oven,  and  mother  takes  him  out  on  the  big 
dish  and  we  proceed  to  take  out  the  potatoes.  Of 
course,  supper  is  now  ready,  and  all  hands  go  to 
work.  We  don't  stop  to  ask  a  blessing.  We  had 
given  thanks  when  we  had  caught  the  'possum. 

Supper  being  over,  such  a  thing  as  family 
prayer  never  being  heard  of  in  our  country,  we 


20  SUNSHINE   AND   SMILES 

had  nothing  to  do  but  go  to  bed.  We  were  not 
troubled  with  getting  clean  sheets  and  pillow  slips. 
We  just  bring  a  sheep  skin  out  of  the  corner  and 
spread  it  out  before  the  fire  and  lie  down,  and  in  a 
few  minutes  we  were  in  the  land  of  delight,  and 
dreaming  some  of  the  finest  things  that  ever  passed 
through  the  mind  of  a  mountain  boy. 

About  this  time  in  my  life  an  impression  was 
made  on  my  mind  I  never  forgot.  I  went  to  spend 
the  night  with  a  little  boy  who  had  a  religious 
home.  When  we  went  to  eat  supper  the  father 
asked  a  blessing  and  waited  on  the  table,  and  was 
so  nice  to  his  wife  and  children.  I  had  never  seen 
anything  of  that  kind.  I  thought  surely  he  must 
be  akin  to  the  Lord.  I  had  heard  mother  tell  of 
his  goodness.  After  supper  we  children  played, 
ate  apples,  roasted  potatoes  and  had  a  fine  time 
until  bed  time.  Then  the  father  told  the  children 
it  was  time  for  bed.  All  stopped  and  sat  down 
quietly  around  the  fire.  The  father  took  down  the 
family  Bible,  read  a  chapter,  all  got  down  on  their 
knees  and  I  knelt  with  them.  For  the  first  time  in 
my  life  I  was  at  family  prayers. 

The  man  prayed  for  every  body,  then  for  his 
wife  and  children.  Then  he  prayed  for  me,  asked 
the  Lord  to  bless  me  and  make  me  a  blessing  to  my 
home  and  a  blessing  to  the  world.  It  touched  my 
tittle  heart.  I  said  right  then  "when  I  got  to  be  a 
ooan  I  was  going  to  have  me  a  nice  home,  a  wife 
*nd  children,  and  I  would  be  kind  to  my  wife  and 


SUNSHINE  AND   SMILES  21 

children,  ask  a  blessing  at  the  table,  read  the  Bible 
and  pray  and  let  my  children  eat  apples,  play,  and 
have  a  nice  time  in  my  home." 

Well,  I  thank  God  I  have  lived  to  see  that  de 
sire  that  sprung  up  in  my  heart  fulfilled.  While  I 
am  writing  two  of  the  sweetest  babies  on  earth  are 
playing  around  me  and  pulling  at  my  coat  skirts 
and  saying  "Papa,  come  and  swing  me,"  and  their 
mama  looks  on  and  smiles. 

Now,  it  seemed  so  sad  to  me  to  go  from  this 
home  of  kindness  and  family  prayers  back  to  our 
old  log  cabin  and  hear  nothing  but  cursing  and 
quarrelling,  but  such  was  my  fate.  That  was  in 
1872.  In  that  year  my  father  died,  leaving  mother 
in  the  mountains  with  ten  children,  but  few  friends 
and  no  money.  Bless  her  old  soul,  I  don't  see  how 
she  lived  and  kept  the  children  alive.  But  I  re 
member  now,  she  would  spin  all  day  and  then 
weave  until  midnight. 

We  then  began  to  have  the  real  (roubles  of  life. 
My  two  oldest  brothers  were  getting  drunk  every 
week.  My  two  oldest  sisters  were  keeping  bad 
company,  and  our  old  cabin  was  full  of  drunken 
boys  three  or  four  nights  in  each  week.  The  young 
men  that  came  to  see  my  sisters  would  come  so 
drunk  they  could  not  get  off  of  their  horses,  and 
we  would  have  to  help  them  off  when  they  came 
and  help  them  on  when  they  left. 

Now,  reader,  you  have  a  faint  picture  of  the 
mountain  life  and  it  is  not  overdrawn,  for  our 


22  SUNSHINE  AND   SMILES 

house  was  looked  upon  as  one  of  the  nicest  places 
in  the  community,  and  we  struggled  on  in  that  way 
until  the  fall  of  '76,  when  my  mother  sold  out  what 
little  she  had  there  and  moved  to  Texas.  We  set 
tled  in  Dallas  county,  near  Lancaster,  rented  a 
farm  and  made  a  crop  on  the  halves,  the  man  fur 
nishing  teams,  feed  and  farming  implements.  We 
made  a  fine  crop,  but  we  did  not  know  how  to  sell 
cotton  and  get  the  money,  for  none  of  us  boys 
could  read  or  write,  and  didn't  know  how  to  trans 
act  business.  The  man  took  advantage  of  our 
ignorance  and  swindled  us  out  of  almost  every 
thing  we  made  that  year. 

We  boys  then  began  to  scatter  out  and  leave 
home.  1  hired  out  that  winter  to  a  man  and  worked 
for  him  three  years — until  the  summer  of  1880, 
when  God  converted  me. 

I  was  converted  on  the  llth  of  August,  on 
Wednesday,  about  11  o'clock  at  night.  That  was 
the  greatest  time  in  all  my  life.  It  is  as  bright  and 
clear  in  my  mind  today  as  if  it  had  been  but  a  few 
hours  ago. 

Well,  Glory  to  God  for  being  brought  in  touch 
with  the  Almighty.  A  man  never  forgets  the  first 
time  he  met  the  Lord,  and  He  lifts  His  blessed  face 
on  him  full  of  tenderness  and  compassion.  It 
makes  an  impression  on  him  that  will  last  through 
out  an  endless  eternity,  and  he  feels  his  sins  rolling 
away  and  rivers  of  salvation  running  down  out  of 
the  clouds  through  his  soul.  The  change  is  so 


SUNSHINE   AND   SMILES  23 

wonderful — brought  from  the  bottom  to  the  top  in 
the  twinkling  of  an  eye.  In  a  single  moment  he  is 
changed  from  a  pauper  to  the  son  of  God.  I  will 
never  forget  that  night.  I  went  there  without  a 
friend  but  mother,  and  a  walking  tramp,  went  back 
an  heir  of  God — joint  heir  with  Jesus  Christ  and 
my  name  written  in  Heaven. 

How  wonderfully  God  surprises  people  some 
times.  I  did  not  go  to  that  meeting  to  get  religion. 
Mother  persuaded  me  two  or  three  days  to  get  me 
off  and  I  only  went  there  to  have  fun  and  a  good 
time,  and  just  walked  right  in  to  salvation.  Well, 
praise  the  Lord  forever!  It  was  God's  way  to 
reach  me.  Mother  didn't  know  I  had  cards  or  an 
old  pistol,  but  the  Lord  did. 

I  walked  about  the  camp  ground  two  or  three 
days  trying  to  get  a  number  of  boys  to  play  cards 
with  me.  But  it  seemed  to  me  everybody  was 
talking  about  religion.  This  was  my  first  trip  to  a 
Methodist  camp  meeting.  It  was  the  old  Bluff 
Spring  camp  ground  on  the  line  between  Dallas  and 
Ellis  counties.  I  had  been  there  a  day  or  two 
when  the  Christians  were  all  sent  back  into  the 
congregation  to  pray  with  some  one,  and  an  old 
lady  that  looked  to  be  nearly  a  hundred  years  old 
came  back  to  the  back  bench  and  found  me.  She 
knelt  down  before  me  and  placed  her  hands  on  my 
knee?.  She  asked  God  to  stop  me  and  not  let  me 
walk  right  into  an  awful  hell.  She  seemed  to  tell 
the  Lord  all  about  me.  I  feel  sure  some  one  had 


24  SUNSHINE  AND   SMILES 

told  her.  I  at  first  wanted  to  run,  then  I  felt  like 
getting  mad,  and  got  into  an  awful  fix.  I  stayed 
through  the  prayer  and  by  this  time  God  had  hold 
of  me. 

That  night  they  put  up  a  little  dried  up  looking 
preacher  with  a  short  coat  on  to  preach,  and  I 
thought  the  whole  thing  would  be  a  failure.  But 
he  hadn't  preached  twenty  minutes  until  he  had 
knocked  every  prop  from  under  me,  and  I  found 
my  infidelity  floating  away.  The  man  I  worked 
for  three  years  was  a  Universalist,  and  he  had  filled 
my  head  with  universalism  and  infidelity,  but  when 
that  old  preacher  held  up  Jesus  Christ  as  the  friend 
of  lost  sinners  and  the  Saviour  of  the  world  I  for 
got  everything  but  my  awful  condition.  I  sat 
there  and  wept  while  he  preached.  At  the  opening 
I  had  set  down  on  the  back  bench  by  a  little  red 
headed  girl  that  was  a  great  dancer,  and  thought  I 
would  have  a  nice  night  of  it,  but  in  a  few;  minutes 
I  was  under  such  awful  conviction  I  forgot  to  spark 
the  girl.  When  the  altar  call  was  made  a  great 
many  went.  I  sort  of  held  back  but  pretty  soon  an 
old  preacher  came  down  the  isle  and  asked  if 
"there  was  a  young  man  back  there  who  wanted 
to  meet  him  in  Heaven?  If  so,  to  come  and  give 
him  his  hand."  I  thought  if  I  ever  was  going  to 
do  anything  religious  now  was  my  time.  I  got  up 
and  started  to  go  and  give  him  my  hand.  By  the 
time  I  got  to  the  preacher  I  was  weeping  aloud, 
and  the  sins  of  my  whole  life  were  standing  up  be  - 


SUNSHINE  AND   SMILES  25 

fore  me.  I  didn't  stop,  but  went  on  to  the  altar. 
As  I  went  by  the  old  man  caught  my  hand  and 
shook  it.  Every  step  down  the  isle  I  felt  like  I  was 
walking  right  into  an  awful  hell.  The  old  pistol  in 
my  pocket  felt  as  big  as  a  mule  and  the  pack  of 
cards  felt  as  heavy  as  a  bale  of  cotton.  When  I 
reached  the  altar  it  was  full  and  I  never  heard 
such  weeping  and  praying  before  in  all  my  life. 
Somebody  said  "Fix  this  young  man  a  seat;  he  is 
deeply  struck."  I  didn't  need  a  seat — I  only  need 
ed  room  to  fall.  I  fell  on  my  face,  stretched  in  the 
altar.  The  good  people  gathered  around  me.  It 
seemed  to  me  fifty  people  were  praying  for  me. 
You  could  have  heard  them  a  half  mile  away,  and 
I  felt  like  I  was  right  over  hell  on  a  broken  rail  and 
would  be  dead  and  in  hell  in  another  minute,  and 
I  was  praying  at  the  top  of  my  voice  for  God  to 
keep  me  out  of  hell.  Just  about  that  time  it  seemed 
to  me  that  all  that  Heaven  is  or  all  that  Heaven 
means  broke  in  on  my  soul,  and  I  was  flooded  with 
light  and  glory  and  was  in  a  new  world. 

The  people  looked  like  angels.  I  never  saw 
such  a  change  in  people  before  or  since.  Just  be 
fore  midnight  I  came  to  myself,  and  I  was  walking 
the  backs  of  the  benches  shouting  and  praising 
God,  and  the  Lord  only  knows  what  I  didn't  do. 
Well,  Glory  to  God  forever.  It  never  grows  old, 
and  is  always  fresh  and  juicy. 

What  a  step  I  took  that  night !  I  stepped  from 
nothing  to  everything.  The  next  morning  I  went 


26  SUNSHINE  AND   SMILES 

up  to  what  they  call  a  testimony  meeting.  I  had 
never  seen  or  been  in  one  before.  One  man  got 
up  and  told  what  God  had  done  for  him  and  how 
he  had  saved  him.  While  he  was  telling  it  I  was 
so  happy  I  had  to  hold  to  the  bench  to  keep  down. 
I  waited  for  two  or  three  to  talk.  Pretty  soon  I  got 
up  to  tell  my  experience.  I  got  so  full  I  felt  like  I 
could  ride  off  on  the  clouds.  I  got  to  hugging  a 
big  post  under  the  tabernacle,  everybody  got  to 
shouting.  Heaven  came  down  on  earth  and  the 
rejoicing  lasted  for  hours.  When  the  shouting 
ceased  the  preacher  opened  the  door  of  the  church 
and  I  RAN  to  join.  He  asked  me  what  church  I 
wanted  to  join.  I  told  him  the  kind  of  one  he  was 
in.  He  said  all  right,  and  then  asked  me  how  I 
wanted  to  be  baptised.  I  asked  how  the  other  peo 
ple  wanted  it  done.  He  answered,  the  most  of 
them  wanted  the  water  poured  on  them.  I  told 
him  to  fix  me  just  like  all  the  rest.  So,  while  he 
poured  clear  water  on  me  I  was  shouting  as  loud 
as  I  could,  and  I  have  hardly  stopped  yet. 

Well,  glory  to  God,  friends  !  Getting  religion 
is  one  of  the  finest  things  in  the  world.  The  man 
who  gets  it  is  surely  ahead.  I  would  rather  see 
people  get  religion  than  anything  I  ever  saw  or 
heard  of  in  all  this  old  world. 

Then  I  had  ten  years  of  struggle  with  the  old 
man — or  what  is  called  the  "ups  and  downs"  of  a 
Christian  life  without  the  fullness  of  Christ. 

The  reader  will  remember  I  was  converted  in 


SUNSHINE  AND   SMILES  27 

August,  1880.  I  received  the  blessing  of  a  clean 
heart  in  1890. 

Getting  wholly  sanctified  does  not  mean  get 
ting  religion  over  again,  or  reclamation  from  a 
state  of  backsliding.  A  regenerated  man  is  a 
Christian,  and  a  Christian  is  a  child  of  God,  but 
vrith  all  that,  there  is  something  in  the  heart  of  an 
unsanctified  man  that  causes  him  a  world  of 
trouble.  It  would  be  for  our  good  and  for  God's 
glory  for  ue  to  confess  up  and  go  down  before  God 
and  get  the  old  man  crucified. 

I  meet  with  thousands  of  people  that  claim 
that  they  don't  need  anything  afto^  conversion.  I 
am  sure  I  did,  and  if  you  love  :  e  like  you  will 
have  to  love  me  to  get  to  heaven,  you  ought  to  be 
willing  for  me  to  get  it  as  soon  as  possible  after  I 
find  out  there  is  a  something  in  my  heart  that  con 
version  did  not  cure — pride,  selfishness,  jealousy, 
fretfulness,  pevishness,  self-will,  ambition,  anger, 
wrath,  malice — these  are  some  of  the  enemies  that 
are  not  cured  in  conversion,  and  I  struggled  with 
this  something  for  ten  years. 

Now,  my  friend,  if  you  have  never  been  trou 
bled  with  any  of  these  things  since  you  were  con 
verted,  I  say,  amen,  to  it;  you  have  been  more 
fortunate  than  I. 

When  we  used  to  meet  at  the  little  church  or 
school  house  to  have  our  weekly  prayer  meetings 
we  would  open  up  by  singing,  "Prone  to  wander, 
Lord,  I  feel  it,"  "Prone  to  leave  the  God  I  love." 


28  SUNSHINE  AND   SMILES 

Then  some  brother  would  be  called  on  to  lead  the 
meeting.  He  would  throw  his  tobacco  out  of  his 
mouth  and  say,  "let  us  pray,"  then  get  down  on 
his  knees  and  say,  "Oh,  Lord,  I  am  a  sinner  in  thy 
sight  and  am  not  worthy  to  take  thy  Holy  name 
between  my  sin- polluted  lips.  I  do  many  things  I 
ought  not  to  do  and  leave  undone  many  things  I 
ought  to  do,  and  am  a  poor  weak  worm  of  the 
dust."  As  he  would  say,  "Amen!"  we  would 
sing: 

"Show  pity,  Lord;  oh  Lord  forgive," 
"Let  a  repenting  rebel  live." 

Have  another  prayer  and  sing : 

"I  saw  a  way-worn  traveler 
In  tattered  garments  clad, 

And  struggling  up  the  mountain 
It  seemed  that  he  was  mad." 

Then  the  leader  would  say,  "who  will  be  first 
to  take  up  his  cross  and  tell  how  he  is  getting 
along."  Some  old  brother  would  get  up  and  throw 
a  big  chew  of  tabacco  over  in  the  corner  and  say: 
"Well,  brethren,  I  am  like  everybody  else,  I  am 
having  my  ups  and  downs  in  life;  when  I  would  do 
good  evil  is  present  with  me,  and  I  find  Jordan  is  a 
hard  road  to  travel.  I  have  had  more  ups  and 
downs  this  week  than  I  erer  had  in  my  life.  I  have 
been  mad  enough  to  die  all  week,  and  I  want  all  to 
pray  for  me  that  I  may  hold  out  to  the  end."  Then 


SUNSHINE  AND  SMILES  29 

we  would  sing,  "Climbing  up  Zion's  hill."  And 
the  leader  would  say:  "Now  come  along  with 
your  testimonies,  take  up  your  cross ;  who  will  be 
next?"  and  some  old  sister  would  get  up  with  her 
mouth  full  of  snuff  and  tell  of  her  trials,  tempta 
tions  and  hardships,  and  not  one  in  the  crowd 
would  praise  God  for  a  thing  in  the  world.  We 
only  went  there,  it  seemed,  to  be  together,  chew 
tobacco,  dip  snuff  and  tell  of  our  defeats.  Not 
one  would  tell  of  a  single  victory  he  had  had. 

I  went  on  in  that  way  several  years  before  I 
heard  there  was  any  better  way  than  the  one  we 
were  living,  but  six  years  after  my  conversion, 
Brother  W.  B.  Godby  came  to  our  home  town, 
Alvarado,  Texas,  to  hold  a  meeting.  The  word 
went  out  over  the  country  that  he  was  a  sanctified 
men.  We  had  no  idea  what  a  sanctified  man  look 
ed  like  and,  of  course,  everybody  in  the  country 
went  to  hear  him.  He  preached  on  hell,  and  said 
that  all  sinning  religion  would  land  the  people 
right  into  an  awful  hell,  and  of  course  war  broke 
out  in  the  community,  and  you  never  heard  such 
tales  on  earth  as  were  told  on  that  old  man. 

But  he  never  stopped  or  let  up.  He  preached 
on  hell  until  the  people  screamed  and  held  to  their 
benches.  He  ran  the  meeting  a  month,  and  over 
two  hundred  and  fifty  were  converted  and  sancti 
fied.  I  went  to  hear  him  and  thought  I  understood 
the  whole  matter.  I  thought  he  was  crazy  and 
would  b«  in  the  asylum  before  the  meeting  closed. 


30  SUNSHINE  AND   SMILES 

He  said  we  would  have  to  give  up  tobacco  or  stay 
out  of  Heaven ;  that  we  could  not  go  into  Heaven 
with  a  chew  of  "Star  Navy"  in  our  mouth.  Circus 
and  theatre-goers  and  horse- racers  were  not  on 
the  road  to  Heaven  at  all.  This  to  us  was  a  new 
doctrine — the  idea  of  a  man  having  to  give  up 
tobacco  and  horse  racing  to  get  to  Heaven!  To 
my  amazement  I  commenced  to  feel  like  it  was  so 
and  to  my  surprise  I  found  myself  under  conviction 
for  a  clean  heart,  but  by  this  time  the  meeting  had 
closed  and  I  had  to  struggle  on  for  four  years 
longer. 

The  next  year  after  Mr.  Godbey's  meeting  Mr. 
Ben  Gassaway  was  our  pastor.  The  life  he  lived 
and  the  sermons  he  preached  sealed  Bro.  Godbey's 
doctrine.  The  seed  that  was  sown  in  my  heart 
that  year  kept  perfectly  sound  for  four  years.  The 
devil  covered  the  seed  up  with  the  clods  of  unbe 
lief  and  told  me  every  seed  had  rotted. 

But  Bless  the  Lord!  On  the  7th  of  June  of 
1890  a  tree  of  perfect  love  sprang  up  from  the 
bottom  of  my  soul  with  sanctification  written  all 
over  it,  grapes  and  pomegranates  on  every  limb 
and  honey  dripping  from  the  leaves.  Glory  to 
God,  Holiness  seed  never  rot !  They  will  keep  for 
many  years  in  any  climate  on  earth  and  grow,  as 
well  in  poor  climate  as  rich.  That  is  one  of  the 
peculiarities  of  Holiness  seed.  They  will  produce 
an  abundant  harvest  in  the  poorest  soil  on  earth. 
If  the  drought  ruins  the  corn  and  the  boll  worm 


SUNSHINE  AND   SMILES  31 

destroys  the  cotton,  it  doesn't  affect  the  crop  of 
Holiness  at  all.  It  grows  and  flourishes  and  yields 
a  greater  crop  than  under  any  other  circumstances. 
I  have  seen  Holiness  seed  in  the  mud  just  as  sound 
as  a  dollar  and  I  have  seen  them  in  the  dust  grow 
ing  and  looking  as  fresh  and  beautiful  as  if  they 
had  been  planted  on  the  banks  of  a  running  stream. 
When  these  seed  get  planted  once  in  a  community 
there  is  no  way  on  earth  to  stop  it.  It  is  like  John 
son  grass — it  just  simply  takes  the  country.  This 
is  one  of  the  reasons  the  enemies  of  Holiness  hate 
it  so  bad.  There  is  no  chance  to  kill  it  out.  If 
they  pull  one  up  a  dozen  will  come  up  in  its  place. 
You  see  the  thing  that  makes  some  people  awful 
n  ad  makes  others  shout.  The  idea  of  not  being 
able  to  kill  it  out  nearly  tickles  me  to  death. 

Well,  Glory  ! 

There  is  something  about  getting  sanctified  a 
fellow  never  forgets.  1  remember  now  the  morn 
ing  I  went  down  into  my  field  to  thin  corn — it  was 
on  Monday  morning.  I  had  preached  twice  on 
Sunday  and  told  the  people  I  was  not  sanctified, 
but  wanted  to  be,  worse  than  anything  on  earth. 
On  Monday  morning  I  rode  over  home  real  early, 
turned  my  pony  out  in  the  pasture,  put  on  my 
working  clothes;  by  that  time  mother  had  break 
fast  ready.  I  ate  my  breakfast,  got  my  hoe  and 
went  to  work.  1  had  not  been  in  the  fie'd  long 
until  I  began  to  preach  to  myself  from  the  text : 


32  SUNSHINE  AND   SMILES 

"Follow  peace  with  all  men  and  holiness,  without 
which  no  man  shall  see  the  Lord." 

I  felt  I  must  have  help  from  the  Lord   or  I 

never  could  preach  again.  So  I  would  pray  awhile, 

thin  corn  awhile,  and  then  preach  a  little  more.     I 

didn't  get  much  corn  thinned  and  while  I  prayed  I 

could  hear  my  brothers  driving  their  teams,  and 

their  cultivators  rattling   as   they  plowed   cotton, 

but  finally  I  got  to  the  place  where  I  did  not  hear 

anything  that  was  going  on  about,  only  the  Devil 

telling  me  I  never  would  get  the  blessing.     At  last 

I  got  up  and  stood  with  my  hoe  in  my  hand.     My 

hoe  was  the  last  thing  I  turned  loose.     I  have 

never  been  troubled  with  a  hoe  from  that  day  till 

this.     About  the  time  I  turned  my  hoe  loose  the 

Lord  came  very  near  me  and  it  seemed  I  could 

hardly  stand  on  the  earth,  the  Lord  was  drawing 

so  near  me   I  could  feel   his   presence.     He  just 

emptied   me  of  everything  and  as  burning  power 

went  through  me  and  emptied  me  of  everything. 

I  could   see  salvation  rolling  over  the  cornfield; 

it  seemed  to  me  I  could  see  God's  face  shining  on 

the  corn  blades — the  corn  was  up  in  swab  tassel, 

and  all  over  the  corn  seemed  to  be  rivers  of  grace, 

and  as  the  Lord  went  through  me  and  took  things 

out  of  my  heart  I  did  not  know  was  in  it,  I  felt  that 

there  was  nothing  in  the  world  left  of  me,  and  & 

peace  that  passes  understanding  flowed  into  my 

heart — the    deepest,    sweetest    peace  I  had  ever 

known,  it  just  satisfied  every  craving  of  the  mind 


SUNSHINE  AND  SMILES  33 

and  every  longing  of  the  soul ;  the  waves  became 
so  great  that  I  fell  down  and  lay  stretched  out  on 
the  ground,  while  tidal  waves  of  grace  and  billow* 
of  glory  flowed  through  my  whole  being.  Indeed 
it  is  the  fullness  of  joy — the  soul  rest — the  full 
assurance — perfect  love — the  baptism  with  the 
Holy  Ghost — the  destruction  of  the  old  man — or, 
the  Second  Blessing. 

Well,  Amen  ! 

For  eleven  long,  weary  years  of  toil  and  pain 
and  disappointment — at  times  without  money  and 
no  bread  in  the  house,  and  thinly  clad,  my  body 
undergoing  the  most  excruciating  pain  it  is  possi 
ble  for  a  man  to  pass  through  and  live.  Five  hun 
dred  times  my  arms  have  been  pulled  out  of  joint 
and  puHed  back  into  place,  suffering  with  paralysis 
in  my  right  side,  at  times  my  lungs  bleeding,  sub 
ject  to  epileptic  fits,  but  God  is  witness  for  these 
eleven  years  I  have  never  had  one  doubt  about  the 
goodness  and  mercy  of  God  and  His  power  to  save, 
sanctify  and  keep. 

I  believe  every  word  of  the  Bible  is  true,  and 
that  God  loves  me.  Jesus  died  for  me  and  the 
Blessed  Holy  Ghost  abides  with  me,  the  angels  are 
watching  over  me,  and,  glory  to  God,  some  sweet 
day  I  am  going  to  meet  Jesus  in  the  clouds,  and 
live  with  him  forever. 

In  1896  I  was  wonderfully  healed  by  the  Lord, 
and  run  for  five  years  without  a  break  and  almost 
without  a  pain,  but  last  year,  1901,  I  gave  out.  The 


34  SUNSHINE  AND   SMILES 

dear  Lord  warned  me  almost  every  day  for  six  weeks 
that  I  was  working  too  hard,  to  stop  and  take  a 
rest,  but  I  did  not  heed  his  voice.  I  broke  down 
and  my  old  trouble  returned.  I  have  had  four 
attacks  in  the  last  fifteen  months,  and  I  am  at 
home  now  resting,  praying  and  loving  God  and 
every  human  being  on  earth.  I  feel  just  now  that 
there  is  room  in  my  heart  for  every  poor  struggling 
?on  of  Adam  in  our  land.  I  never  had  more  faith 
in  God  than  I  have  today.  I  believe  I  will  soon  be 
strong  enough  to  go  on  with  my  work.  I  feel  like 
God  will  let  me  stay  here  and  love  people  for  many 
years  yet.  If  he  does  not,  wouldn't  it  be  fine  to  have 
the  blessed  privilege  of  moving  to  Heaven .  Just 
think  of  a  man  coming  from  poverty,  ignorance, 
disgrace,  pain,  misery  and  woe — getting  into  the 
chariot  and  riding  through  the  skies,  and  sitting 
down  on  the  banks  of  the  river  of  life.  Now,  I 
earnestly  ask  every  saint  of  God  that  reads  this 
book  to  talk  to  the  Lord  about  my  health.  I  be 
lieve  if  I  live  a  few  years  longer,  I  can  love  God 
and  the  people  better  and  can  be  a  greater  blessing 
to  the  world  than  I  have  ever  been. 

I  only  want  my  health  for  God's  glory — if  it  is 
not  for  my  good  and  His  glory  I  don't  want  to  have 
it.  I  don't  mind  the  suffering  in  the  least,  there  is 
something  about  a  pain  in  the  head  or  back  that 
makes  a  fellow  feel  that  he  is  a  dependent  being 
upon  an  independent  God.  Without  pain  we  would 
not  know  how  frail  the  human  family  was  nor  how 


SUNSHINE  AND   SMILES  35 

great  God  is.  You  sometimes  see  a  strong,  well 
man  walking  down  the  streets  of  the  city  filling  his 
stomach  with  liquor,  and  pouring  out  his  profanity 
on  God's 'pure  air,  and  swearing  he  can  whip  his 
weight  in  wildcats;  poor  fellow,  he  is  blinded  by 
the  devil  and  led  captive  at  his  will.  But  bless  the 
Lord,  before  sundown  a  severe  pain  strikes  him  in 
the  stomach,  and  in  a  few  minutes  his  eyes  are 
opened  and  he  sees  his  awful  condition  and  goes 
to  calling  on  God  for  mercy  and  asking  his  friends 
to  pray  for  him.  If  you  had  stopped  the  fellow  on 
the  sidewalk  and  told  him  God  loved  him  and  that 
you  were  praying  for  him,  he  would  have  made 
fun  of  you  to  your  face,  but  thank  God,  we  can 
never  get  out  of  the  bow  shot  of  our  blessed  Heav 
enly  Father,  and  sometimes  the  way  God  can  have 
mercy  on  us  is  to  let  an  arrow  fly  and  strike  us  in 
the  side.  How  we  look  up  into  the  face  of  our  lov 
ing  Father  and  say  "what  is  the  matter?"  and  God 
replies  "If  I  had  not  let  an  arrow  fly  at  you,  you 
would  have  been  in  hell  in  less  than  a  month." 
Just  think  of  it,  if  there  were  no  more  deathbed 
scenes,  pain  or  poverty,  for  the  next  one  hundred 
years — think  of  not  another  grave  dug — no  man 
suffering  or  seeing  his  loved  ones  die  or  suffer,  to 
what  extent  would  the  whiskey  element  and  the 
tobacco  factories  run.  Think  of  the  brothels  run 
ning  day  and  night  without  any  fear  of  death  or 
sickness,  with  the  luxuries  of  life  piled  up  around 
them.  Think  of  how  the  people  of  this  country 


36  SUNSHINE  AND  SMILES 

would  strut,  boast  and  brag,  and  curse  God  to  His 
face,  defy  heaven,  burn  down  churches  and  make 
fun  of  religion. 

I  tell  you,  friends,  if  God  did  not  put  on  the 
breaks  it  would  not  be  long  until  the  D.  Ds.  of 
this  country  would  have  to  acknowledge  that  man 
was  totally  depraved,  and  his  heart  deceitful  above 
all  things  and  desperately  wicked. 

When  God  gives  you  a  threshing  you  should 
be  very  thankful,  for  he  will  have  to  beat  off  the 
chaff  and  burn  up  the  straw  before  he  can  gather 
the  wheat  into  the  garner. 


SUNSHINE  AND  SMILES  37 


PART  FIRST 


RAMBLING  THOUGHTS. 

The  reason  your  head  don't  rattle,  my  friend, 
is  because  you  have  lost  the  seed  out.  Don't  you 
understand? 

A  friend  came  to  me  not  long  since  and  said : 
"Brother  Bud,  my  religious  joy  has  all  leaked 
out.  What  is  my  trouble?"  "My!"  I  said,  "My 
friend,  you  keep  your  mouth  open  all  the  time." 
She  said  "Thank  you,  sir,"  and  I  said  "you  are 
welcome." 

The  preacher  that  can't  do  anything  but  turn 
summersets  in  the  big  dipper,  shave  the  man  in 
the  moon,  and  cut  off  his  hair,  is  a  failure. 

451838 


38  SUNSHINE  AND   SMILES 

The  preacher  that  comes  down  out  of  the  syca 
more  tree  and  receives  the  Lord  joyfully  is  a  great 
success. 

Why  will  a  preacher  spend  his  time  in  staking 
out  claims  on  Jupiter  and  Venus,  when  the  Bible 
describes  two  other  countries  and  says  we  are 
going  to  one  or  the  other  of  them. 


The  preacher  who  is  constantly  spitting  out 
Greek  roots,  Latin  verbs  and  Hebrew  phrases  is 
seldom  ever  seen  with  grape  hulls  in  his  beard  or 
the  juice  on  his  face. 


The  twin  brothers  of  the  Bible:  "It  shall  be 
done"  and  "It  came  to  pass,"  you  find  one  on 
every  page — one  on  one  page  the  other  one  on  the 
other. 


The  promises  of  the  Bible  are  very  large;  you 
can  lie  down  and  stretch  out  on  them  and  you 
can't  kick  the  foot  board,  scratch  the  head  board 
nor  touch  the  railing1  on  either  side. 


In  looking  at  the  promises  of  the  Bible  you 
think  of  an  apple  orchard  on  a  hillside  hanging 
full  of  ripe  fruit;  the  wind  blows  them  off,  they  roll 
down  the  hill — you  have  nothing  to  do  but  to  pick 
them  up  and  go  on  eating  and  praising  the  Lord. 


SUNSHINE  AND   SMILES  39 

The  Lord  said  "The  cattle  on  a  thousand  hills 
are  mine,"  and  I  said,  "Yes,  Lord,  and  all  the 
potatoes  in  the  hills."  He  said,  "Buddie,  do  you 
want  potatoes?"  I  said,  "Yes,  Lord."  He  said, 
"Go  to  scratching."  I  said,  "Lord,  just  watch  me 
scratch,"  and  when  he  looked  at  me  it  almost 
tickled  me  to  death. 


I  am  standing  on  the  promises,  walking  in  His 
footprints,  leaning  on  His  everlasting  arms  and 
drinking  from  the  fountain  that  never  runs  dry. 

When  I  was  a  sinner  God  frowned  on  me ;  in 
my  justified  life  He  smiled  on  me;  but,  in  my 
sanctified  life  He  laughs  all  over  my  soul. 


When  I  was  a  sinner  I  lived  on  bread  and  mo 
lasses;  when  I  got  converted  the  Lord  said  your 
bread  and  water  shall  be  sure,  and  threw  in  streak 
ed  bacon ;  but  since  He  sanctified  me  He  sets  me 
in  a  glass  cupboard  and  pitches  red  apples  at  me 
till  I  laugh  myself  to  sleep. 


Where  is  the  headquarters  of  a  sanctified  man? 
Why,  in  the  vineyard  of  the  Lord,  of  course. 


What  is  the  description  of  a  sanctified  man? 
He  has  a  level  head,  a  sweet  spirit,  a  big  soul,  a 
loving1  disposition  and  a  good  heart. 


40  SUNSHINE  AND  SMILES 

The  blessing  of  sanctification  doesn't  make  an 
A.  M.  graduate  out  of  a  fellow,  but  it  does  enable 
him  to  make  the  best  use  possible  of  the  sense 
he's  got. 


You  can  tell  a  sanctified  tnan  anywhere  you  see 
him — he  has  grape  hulls  in  his  beard,  the  juice  all 
over  his  face  and  his  pockets  full  of  pomegranates. 


If  the  Lord  is  your  shepherd  then  you  are  the 
Lord's  sheep,  and  he  has  a  perfect  right  to  shear 
you  any  time  he  needs  wool,  and  you  have  no 
right  to  bleat. 

What  a  sad  sight — God's  lamb  in  the  devil's 
cocklebur  patch  with  his  wool  full  of  cockleburs. 

The  religion  of  Jesus  Christ  is  the  principles  of 
God  the  Father.  If  you  claim  it  you  ought  to  live 
as  you  think  he  would  if  he  were  in  your  place. 


"When  I  was  a  preacher  boy  I  use  to  tell  my 
congregation  that  I  was  going  to  preach  to  their 
hearts.  I  thought  then  their  hearta  were  very  soft, 
but  I  have  now  changed  my  tactics  and  preach  to 
their  heads,  for  I  have  found  out  that  men's  heads 
are  much  softer  than  their  hearts. 

If  we  can  fill  a  man's  head  full  of  gospel  truth 


SUNSHINE  AND   SMILES  41 

it  will  soak  down  into  his  heart  and  break  out  on 
his  face  and  change  his  whole  life. 


A  young  Baptist  preacher  told  me  once  that 
bapto  and  bap  tiazo  meant  to  dip  and  to  plunge. 
I  was  a  plow- boy  and  very  hungry.  I  told  him  if 
he  could  show  me  that  gravie,  gravi  and  gravo 
were  the  Greek  words  for  good  table  sop  I  was  a 
candidate.  He  just  twisted  his  moustache  and 
went  on.  You  see  I  wasn't  a  Greek  scholar. 


A  POINT  ON  TOTAL  DEPRAVITY. 

An  old  lady  in  the  mountains  of  old  Tennessee 
was  fixing  one  morning  to  ge  and  spend  the  day 
with  a  sick  neighbor,  and  before  leaving  home  she 
called  up  the  children:  Your  mother  has  to  go  to 
wait  on  a  sick  woman  today  and  I  wont  get  back 
till  night,  and  if  you  children  go  up  stairs  and  look 
in  the  old  chest  and  get  out  my  pumpkin  seed  and 
eat  them  up,  and  if  you  look  up  over  the  east  win 
dow  and  take  down  my  poke  of  striped  seed 
beans  and  cram  your  noses  full,  when  I  come  back 
here  tonight  I  will  beat  your  heads  till  they  are  as 
soft  as  pumpkins.  She  got  on  her  old  pacing 
pony  and  went  down  the  road  raising  the  dust.  It 
will  suffice  to  say,  that  when  she  came  in  that 
night  every  pumpkin  seed  had  been  eaten  up  and 
every  bean  had  been  planted  deep  in  the  noggins 


42  SUNSHINE  AND  SMILES 

of  those  mountain  boys.     Shame  on  the  man  that 
denies  total   depravity. 

Common  sense  religion  means  to  manufacture 
sunshine  and  smiles  and  give  them  to  a  lost  world. 


The  man  that  is  looking  into  the  loving  face  of 
Jesus  Christ  never  sees  the  dark  side  of  life.  To 
him  there  is  but  one  side,  and  that  is  always  bright. 


The  man  that  has  God  for  his  Father,  and 
Jesus  Christ  for  his  Saviour,  the  Holy  Ghost  for 
his  abiding  comforter  and  the  redeemed  saints  of 
all  the  ages  for  his  brothers  and  sisters,  the  angels 
for  his  companions  and  Heaven  for  his  eternal 
home,  thank  God,  his  fortune  is  made. 


The  man  that  prays  louder  with  a  spell  of  the 
cramp  colic  than  he  does  at  family  prayers  would 
bo  uneasy  at  the  judgment. 

There  are  66  books  in  the  Bible,  1,189  chap 
ters,  31,173  verses,  773,746  words,  3,566,480  letters, 
and  every  book,  chapter,  verse,  word  and  letter  is 
an  index  finger  pointing  to  the  Christ  of  Prophecy, 
the  Christ  of  Bethlehem,  the  Christ  of  Calvary, 
and,  thank  God,  the  Christ  that  walked  off  from 
Mt.  Olivet  on  the  clouds,  saying,  "Goodbye,  boys; 
1  am  going  to  prepare  a  place  for  you,  ani  if  I  go 


SUNSHINE   AND   SMILES  43 

and  prepare  a  place  for  you  I  will  come  again  and 
receive  you  unto  myself,  that  where  I  am  there  ye 
may  be  also."  Do  you  wonder  they  stood  looking 
up  into  the  clouds?  Why,  praise  the  Lord,  no! 

The  difference  between  us  and  the  Lord  is,  the 
Lord  came  to  see  us  and  we  made  him  pay  his  tax 
— we  went  to  see  him  and  he  paid  ours.  Bless  His 
dear  name!  See  the  difference?  The  sinner 
doesn't  serve  God  at  all  The  regenerated  man 
serves  God  through  a  sense  of  duty.  The  sancti 
fied  man  serves  God  through  a  sense  of  love.  See 
the  difference?  Which  crowd  are  you  running 
with,  my  friend. 


The  man  that  is  a  stockholder  in  the  clouds 
surely  walks  on  earth  and  lives  in  Heaven.  Did 
you  hear  what  Paul  said  about  it?  He  said,  "For 
our  conversation  is  in  Heaven  from  whence  we 
look  for  the  Saviour  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ." 
Don't  you  see  if  your  conversation  is  in  Heaven 
you  must  live  there? 

See  that  man  there  squirting  tobacco  juice  out 
of  his  mouth?  He  says  he  is  chewing  his  cud. 
Well,  hear  what  Moses  says  about  it:  "Any 
animal  that  chews  his  cud  that  has  not  got  a  forked 
hoof  is  unclean." 


See  the  man  coming  down  the  street  sucking  at 


44  SUNSHINE  AND   SMILES 

the  end  of  an  old  pipe  stem? — you  can  smell  him 
fifty  yards.  As  he  goes  by  I  think  of  the  words  of 
a  young  woman  who  said,  "Lord,  by  this  time  he 
stinketh." 

Did  you  see  that  young  man  on  the  side  walk, 
with  a  roll  of  brown  paper  in  his  mouth,  one  end  of 
it  on  fire  and  something  blue  coming  out  of  his 
nose?  Yes!  What  in  the  world  is  his  trouble? 
Why,  he  has  bad  thoughts,  bad  dreams  and  bad 
conduct,  and  he  is  trying  to  purify  his  brains.  It 
is  generally  supposed  he  has  the  hollow  head. 
Oh,  my!  What  a  disease! 

When  a  man  has  gold  he  is  a  gold  standard 
man,  when  he  has  silver  he  is  a  free  silver  man, 
when  he  has  greenbacks  he  is  a  greenbacker,  and 
when  he  is  broke  he  is  a  "pop."  Bless  the  Lord! 
I  am  a  prohibition er. 

Money  is  the  cheapest  thing  in  the  world.  I 
suppose  it  is  because  it  keeps  such  bad  company. 


Somehow  you  always  associate  money  and 
politics  together.  They  are  sort  o*  like  the  sun  and 
moon — one  rules  by  day  and  the  other  by  night. 


The  blessing  of  sanctification  will  not  keep  you 
from  snoring  in  your  sleep,  but  bless  the  Lord,  it 
will  cause  you  to  wake  np  in  a  good  humor. 


SUNSHINE  AND  SMILES  45 

If  a  man  gets  into  a  drunken  row,  and  a  bar 
tender  throws  a  beer  bottle  across  the  bar  and 
knocks  one  of  his  eyes  out,  and  in  after  years  we 
get  him  converted  and  sanctified,  the  blessing  of 
sanctification  will  not  put  his  eye  back,  but  it  will 
onable  him  to  wake  up  in  the  morning  of  the  resur 
rection  with  two  eyes  as  bright  as  twenty  dollar 
gold  pieces. 


The  man  is  a  great  success  that  can  take  the 
material  he  has  on  hand  and  succeed  with  it.  But 
you  say  "I  havn't  got  anything  to  start  with." 
Well,  who  in  the  world  did  have?  Don't  you 
remember  when  you  were  born  you  had  nothing 
but  your  little  red  skin  ? 

The  salvation  that  Jesus  Christ  purchased  for 
a  lost  world  is  wonderful  in  its  magnitude.  It  is  as 
deep  as  fallen  humanity,  as  broad  as  the  compas 
sion  of  God,  as  high  as  Heaven  and  as  everlasting 
as  the  eternal  Rock  of  Ages. 


Oh,  this  great  salvation!  It  justifies  freely, 
sanctifies  wholly,  cleanses  thoroughly  and  keeps 
sweetly. 

This  great  salvation  is  knowable,  feelable, 
enjoyable,  livable,  but  not  explainable. 


What  a  delusion  a  man  is  under!     See  him  in 


46  SUNSHINE  AND  SMILES 

a  fit  of  anger,  he  thinks  he  has  lost  his  temper,  but 
you  can  see  he  hasn't,  for  it  is  hung  up  all  over 
his  face.  Any  thing  that  is  lost  is  out  of  sight. 
Don't  you  catch  on?  But  he  says,  "I  feel  like  I 
have  lost  something."  Well,  you  have,  my  brother 
— it  is  your  religion.  Now  look  into  your  heart 
and  see. 


My  friend,  if  you  are  troubled  with  wrinkles  on 
your  face,  let  the  Lord  wipe  his  hands  on  your 
heart  a  few  times,  and  when  you  look  at  your  face 
you  will  be  surprised,  and  won't  know  it,  and  will 
wonder  where  it  came  from.  Why,  from  Heaven, 
of  course. 


I  said  to  my  congregation  one  morning:  "My 
friends,  I  am  glad  to  inform  you  that  I  have  at  last 
located  your  trouble.  It  is  just  below  your  collar 
bone  and  a  little  to  the  left  of  your  stomach."  A 
man  spoke  up  and  said,  "Is  it  heart  failure?"  I 
said,  "Oh,  no.  When  you  see  a  man  gritting  his 
teeth,  slamming  doors,  knocking  down  chairs  and 
pulling  his  hair,  you  know  his  heart  hasn't  failed. 
He  is  suffering  with  carnality. 


If  conversion  and  sanctification  don't  keep  a 
man  sweet,  get  him  to  the  altar  as  quick  as  possible, 
and  get  him  to  get  religion,  it  will  have  a  wonderful 
effect  on  him. 


SUNSHINE  AND  SMILES  47 

I  am  in  the  Holiness  move  forever,  but  let's 
give  the  devil  his  dues.  Soured  Holiness  is  the 
worst  form  of  religion  I  ever  saw,  and,  my  friend, 
if  you  are  troubled  with  it,  it  will  kill  you  if  you 
don't  get  rid  of  it. 

When  God  sanctifies  a  preacher  he  winds  him 
up,  sets  him  on  fire  and  starts  him  to  running,  and 
he  has  nothing  to  do  but  to  unwind,  shine  and 
shout. 

Four  things  are  needful  to  understand  the 
scriptures.  1st.  Find  out  who  is  doing  the  talking. 
2nd.  Who  he  is  talking  to.  3rd.  What  he  is  talk 
ing  about.  4th.  Believe  he  meant  just  what  he 
said,  and  the  problem  is  solved. 


Christ  said,  "I  will  nake  you  fishers  of  men." 
Well,  thank  God  I  If  we  tarry  for  the  induement 
of  power  and  get  our  pentecost,  pentecostal  preach 
ing  will  catch  the  fish  and  clean  them  after  they 
are  caught.  The  trouble  with  our  churches  is  in 
our  revivals.  We  catch  and  string  the  fish  and 
don't  get  them  cleaned  and  they  spoil  on  our  hands. 
You  see  it  is  one  thing  to  catch  the  fish  and  another 
thing  to  clean  him. 

THE  DIFFERENCE  BETWEEN  TWO  WOMEN. 
When  you  see  a  woman  full  of  sin,  fashion, 


48  SUNSHINE  AND   SMILES 

pride  and  the  devil,  the  first  thought  that  comes  to 
your  mind  is,  "Has  she  got  a  pretty  face?"  But 
when  you  meet  with  a  woman  with  clean  hands  and 
a  pure  heart,  who  hath  not  lifted  up  her  soul  to 
vanity,  nor  sworn  deceitfully,  you  never  think  of 
her  face,  but  look  at  the  beautiful  life,  and  as  she 
goes  by  you  take  off  your  hat  and  put  it  under  your 
arm  and  feel  like  you  are  standing  on  holy  ground. 

Tf  a  man's  mind  is  located  in  his  head,  then 
some  men's  heads  are  nothing  but  a  garbage  box, 
and  his  mouth  a  second  class  sewerage.  How  dis 
gusting  he  is.  When  you  meet  with  such  a  fellow 
you  feel  like  you  needed  a  good  bath  and  a  few 
hours  sleep. 


The  first  debt  I  owe  this  country  is  a  good  man ; 
the  second,  a  good  husband;  the  third,  a  good 
father;  the  fourth,  a  good  neighbor,  and  if  God 
will  furnish  the  grace  I  will  furnish  the  man.  "For 
ye  are  workers  together  with  him."  See  the  Bible. 


That  old  adage  "If  at  first  you  don't  succeed, 
try,  try  again,"  I  never  did  like,  for  the  way  to 
succeed  is  to  suck  'till  you  get  the  seed.  Hear  St. 
John  on  this  seed  business:  "For  whosoever  is 
born  of  God  doth  not  commit  sin,  for  his  seed 
remaineth  in  him  and  he  cannot  sin  because  he  is 
born  of  God."  You  see,  God  furnishes  the  seed 


SUNSHINE  AND  SMILES  49 

and  you  have  nothing  to  do  but  suck.     Well,  Glory ! 
Isn't  that  fine? 

A  sanctified  man  has  a  shining  face,  an  easy 
conscience,  and  a  light  heart,  and  is  as  bold  as  a 
lion,  as  patient  as  an  ox,  as  swift  as  an  eagle,  as 
wise  as  a  serpent,  as  harmless  as  a  dove,  as  gentle 
as  a  lamb,  and  as  sweet  as  honey.  If  you  were  to 
slap  his  jaws  you  would  get  honey  all  over  your 
hand,  and  as  you  walked  away  you  would  feel 
something  sticky  on  your  hand.  Lick  it  off  and 
get  under  conviction,  and  come  back  to  see  what 
ailed  him,  and  find  out  it  was  perfect  love. 

But  you  say  there  is  nobody  that  can  live 
where  you  live  and  live  a  sanctified  life.  Well,  I 
believe  it,  because  you  are  living  in  the  kingdom 
of  sin.  Move  over  into  the  kingdom  of  grace  and 
you  will  talk  different.  But  you  say,  "I  never  saw 
one  that  lived  it."  Well,  my  neighbor,  that  proves 
that  you  have  been  keeping  awful  bad  company. 
If  you  will  change  crowds  you  will  see  things  quite 
different. 

It  would  be  a  great  business  transaction  for  me 
to  die,  for  my  Heavenly  father  has  insured  me  for 
more  than  I  am  worth,  and  I  can  only  collect  the 
policy  by  exchanging  the  cross  for  my  crown. 
Hallelujah,  Amen! 


50  SUNSHINE  AND   SMILES 

The  fellow  that  says  he  is  sanctified  will  have 
no  trouble  in  establishing  the  fact  if  he  can  show 
the  fruit.  To  illustrate :  An  Irishman  was  on  trial 
in  one  of  our  county  courts.  The  county  judge 
said  to  him,  "Are  you  a  married  man?"  The 
Irishman  never  opened  his  mouth,  but  proceeded  to 
take  off  his  hat,  and  showed  a  scar  on  the  side  of 
his  head  that  looked  something  like  a  fire  shovel. 
The  judge  said,  "I  accept  the  evidence;  you  may 
stand  aside."  He  showed  the  fruit. 

A  physician  with  eczema  on  his  ankles  is  never 
without  a  call,  and  his  services  are  in  constant 
demand  the  year  round,  and  he  is  never  without 
employment.  It  is  so  easy  for  him  to  fulfil  the 
scripture  where  it  says,  "What  your  hand  finds  to 
do,  do  it  with  all  your  might." 


The  way  to  make  a  success  of  life  when  you 
meet  with  a  disappointment  is  just  drop  the  letter 
"d"  and  put  **h"  instead,  and  then  see  what  it 
spells— H-I-S-A-P-P-O-I-N-T-M-E-N-T.  Well, 
Bless  the  Lord!  Don't  you  see  that  puts  you  in 
regular  succession. 

The  man  is  a  great  success  in  this  life  that  can 
gather  up  sunshine  all  day  and  spread  it  out  on  the 
fly  leaves  of  his  brain  pan,  and  come  in  at  night, 
unfold  the  leaves  and  show  it  to  his  wife  and  babies. 


SUNSHINE  AND  SMILES  61 

The  young  woman  that  knows  how  to  pray,  run 
a  sewing  machine,  cook  stove,  washboard,  flat  iron 
and  milk  the  cow,  never  jumps  head-first  into  the 
river,  because  she  has  an  easy  conscience  and  a 
light  heart,  and  with  a  smile  on  her  face  she  goes 
on  turning  everything  she  touches  into  sunshine. 


But  the  young  woman  that  can't  do  anything 
but  look  pretty,  wear  fine  clothes,  put  on  perfumery 
and  dead  birds  and  flirt  with  a  little  fellow  blowing 
blue  smoke  out  of  his  nose  and  driving  a  livery  rig, 
she  soon  becomes  disgusted  with  the  world  and 
worse  with  herself,  life  becomes  a  burden  and  a 
drag.  She  decides  to  end  her  miserable  existence 
by  jumping  head-first  into  the  river.  She  is 
dragged  out  the  second  day,  buried  the  third,  and 
by  the  fourth  she  is  forgotten,  because  she  did 
nothing  to  bless  the  world  while  she  lived  in  it. 

If  thick  milk  is  clabber,  then  your  cow  is  a 
clabber  sprout,  and  when  you  milk  your  cow, 
properly  speaking,  you  are  juicing  your  clabber 
sprout. 

The  most  disgusting  thing  I  ever  saw  was  a 
man  standing  on  a  street  corner,  with  blood -shot- 
ten  eyes,  a  red  nose,  a  bloated  face,  and  a  big 
stomach  on  him,  sucking  at  an  old  pipe,  with  the 
smell  of  strong  drink  on  his  breath,  and  dirty 


52  SUNSHINE  AND   SMILES 

clothes  on  his  body,  talking  about  the  "Mistakes 
of  Moses"  and  the  "Failures  of  Christianity." 


I  have  seen  cows  with  tongues  long  enough  to 
lick  their  calves  through  the  crack  of  the  fence. 
"Well,"  you  say,  "that  is  a  mighty  long  tongue." 
Yes,  but  I  have  seen  longer  tongues  than  that.  I 
have  seen  people  that  could  sit  in  their  own  parlor 
and  lick  their  neighbors  all  around  the  country. 
They  would  make  you  think  of  a  wagon — they 
need  a  breast  yoke  to  hold  their  tongue  up. 


Two  of  the  most  unnatural  looking  things  in  the 
world:  One  is  a  backslidden  preacher;  the  other 
is  a  long-tailed  mule.  The  mule  needs  shearing, 
and  the  preacher  has  been  sheared.  See  the  Bible : 
"And  while  he  slept,  with  his  head  on  her  lap  they 
sheared  off  his  locks." 


The  reason  why  I  had  rather  be  a  dog  than  a 
mean  white  man:  The  dog  licks  his  own  mouth, 
but  a  mean  man  licks  his  wife. 


The  religion  that  is  full  of  juice  is  full  of  teeth 
and  a  religion  with  teeth  in  it  will  bite,  and  if  it 
bites  it  will  get  hold  of  somebody  and  they  will 
holler,  and  when  a  fellow  hollers  you  have  him 
located  and  you  know  where  to  work. 


SUNSHINE  AND   SMILES  53 

A  juiceless  religion  is  toothless,  lifeless,  power 
less,  and  dead.  A  dead  religion  was  hatched  out 
of  the  old  nest  egg  from  under  the  mudsill  of  per 
dition,  and  was  one  of  the  first  broods  that  Split- 
foot  hatched  off.  I  don't  know  how  long  he  set  on 
the  nest  but  I  am  sure  he  hatched  every  egg  he  set 
on.  A  dead  religion  has  cursed  the  church, 
wrecked  the  faith  and  blasted  the  hopes  of  multi 
plied  millions  of  the  sons  and  daughters  of  Adam. 


The  most  people  seem  to  think  they  have  the 
worst  neighbors  in  the  world,  and  think  they  could 
be  very  happy  if  they  only  lived  somewhere  else ; 
but,  my  friend,  that  is  a  mistake.  The  trouble  is 
not  always  with  the  other  fellow.  It  is  not  the 
place  you  are  in  that  makes  you  happy,  but  the 
condition  that  you  are  in.  It  is  not  what  your 
neighbors  say  about  you ;  it  is  what  God  knows  you 
to  be.  If  you  stand  well  at  headquarters,  you  can 
get  down  on  your  knees  by  your  fireside  and  shake 
hands  with  the  Lord.  Glory  to  God!  And  of 
course  you  can  shake  hands  with  every  neighbor 
you  have,  and  rivers  of  salvation  will  run  down  out 
of  the  clouds  and  break  in  on  your  soul,  and  you 
will  love  God  with  a  perfect  heart  and  your  neigh 
bor  as  yourself.  And  then,  my  brother,  you  won't 
want  to  move,  for  you  will  have  the  best  neighbors 
in  the  world,  and  you  just  can't  afford  to  leave 
them.  But  you  say,  "Brother  Bud,  how  do  you 


54  SUNSHINE  AND   SMILES 

know  that?"     Well,  I  know  it  because  I  have  tried 
it. 


If  we  were  not  totally  depraved  why  would  we 
be  ashamed  of  a  small  head,  a  big  foot,  or  a  wart 
on  the  nose?  The  majority  of  the  people  of  today 
are  wearing  shoes  at  least  two  numbers  too  small 
for  them.  The  most  of  us  are  ashamed  to  go  into 
a  business  house  and  call  for  a  pair  of  shoes  large 
enough.  They  tell  us  that  the  Chinese  women  put 
their  babies'  feet  in  an  iron  shoe,  and  we  send  10 
cents  to  China  to  enlighten  the  heathen  and  spend 
25  cents  at  home  for  corn  medicine.  We  send 
missionaries  to  teach  them  not  to  drown  their  baby 
girls,  while  we  enlightened,  educated  Christians  of 
America  destroy  our  children  before  they  are  born. 
Oh,  my  friend!  which  side  of  the  creek  is  the 
heathen  on?  If  we  were  straight  up  and  right 
down,  and  up  right,  down  right,  in  right,  out 
right  and  all  right  we  would  not  be  ashamed  of 
anything  but  sin.  The  man  that  denies  total 
depravity  shows  that  "the  trail  of  the  serpent"  is 
over  him  still. 

When  a  religious  woman  loses  her  temper, 
slams  the  doors,  kicks  the  chairs  over  and  slaps 
her  baby  boy  on  the  side  of  the  head  and  says  to 
him,  "You  stinking  rascal,  you  are  just  like  that 
old  daddy  of  yours,"  as  the  baby  goes  around  the 


SUNSHINE  AND   SMILES  55 

corner  of  the  table  snubbing,  she  says,  "You 
would  provoke  the  angels;  you  have  aggravated 
your  mother  this  morning  until  I  am  so  nervous  I 
can't  control  myself."  You  see,  ehe  calls  it  ner 
vousness,  when  the  long  and  the  short  of  it  was, 
the  old  lion  just  got  up  and  shook  himself,  and  of 
course  he  shook  the  woman  too.  See  Isaiah 
35 :8-9- 10.  And  when  her  husband,  who  is  a  pillar 
in  the  church  and  a  member  of  the  official  board, 
gets  mad  and  does  and  says  things  that  a  respect 
able  sinner  ought  not  to  do,  and  says  he  calls  it 
positiveness,  and  says,  "I  always  was  of  a  very 
positive  make-up;  my  neighbors  and  friends  never 
did  understand  me."  Well,  the  reason  we  don't 
understand  you,  my  brother,  is  because  you  claim 
to  be  a  Christian  and  live  like  a  sinner.  If  you  will 
bring  your  life  up  to  your  profession  it  will  be  no 
trouble  for  you  to  make  your  neighbors  understand 
you.  The  Bible  says,  "Ye  shall  know  them  by 
their  fruit."  It  is  a  fearful  thing  to  see  a  man  and 
his  wife  controlled  by  the  carnal  mind.  One  call 
ing  it  nervousness  and  the  other  calling  it  positive  - 
ness.  What  will  their  children  call  it? 


The  way  to  get  along  well  with  your  neighbor 
is  to  keep  the  rat  hole  in  your  noggin  closed. 

Ic  takes  less  religion  to  criticize  than  anything 
else  in  the  world.     I  have  tried  it,  and  when  a 


56  SUNSHINE  AND  SMILSS 

fellow  tries  and  proves  anything  he  knows  what  he 
is  talking  about. 

There  is  such  a  hollow  sound  about  what  a 
fellow  says  when  he  keeps  his  head  open  all  the 
time.  It  sounds  a  great  deal  like  a  boy  beating  on 
a  barrel  with  the  bunghole  open.  Why  don't  he 
bring  his  tongue  in  out  of  the  weather  and  shut 
his  mouth? 

St.  Paul  was  greatly  troubled  with  a  fellow  he 
called  "Alexander  the  Coppersmith."  I  see  some 
marks  of  similarity  between  Paul  and  myself.  I 
have  been  bothered  with  that  same  fellow.  I  notice 
he  is  still  a  great  drawback  to  the  churches.  When 
I  see  the  collectors  coming  back  with  only  a  few 
pennies  in  the  hat,  I  know  Alex,  is  on  hand. 
When  a  man  puts  in  a  copper  when  he  should  put 
in  5,  10,  25  or  50  cents,  he  is  an  Alexander  Cop 
persmith.  Alex,  has  a  mighty  following  today. 

When  I  was  in  New  England  an  infidel  attacked 
me  for  preaching  that  there  was  a  hell.  He  told 
me  Lyman  Abbott  had  proved  there  was  no  hell. 
I  said  to  him,  "Now,  my  friend,  who  on  earth  did 
he  prove  that  by?  He  didn't  prove  it  by  me;  he 
never  even  consulted  me  about  it."  He  looked  at 
me  perfectly  surprised  and  said,  "Are  you  the 
cowboy  preacher  from  Texas?"  I  said,  "Yes,  I 


SUNSHINE  AND   SMILES  57 

came  from  Texas  and  I  have  seen  cows  out  there." 
He  said,  "We  don't  need  such  preachers  as  you 
here.  You  ought  to  go  to  Chicago.  Don't  you 
know  we  have  the  brainiest  men  and  women  in  the 
world  here.  I  can  produce  fifty  thousand  of  the 
brainiest  men  and  women  of  the  City  of  Boston  of 
my  faith."  I  said  to  him,  "Yes,  you  have  more 
brains  and  less  manhood  than  any  gang  I  ever 
saw — fifty  thousand  of  you  going  in  a  solid  platoon 
to  a  yawning,  gaping,  burning  hell,  where  the 
devil  will  pour  salty  damnation  down  you.  He  will 
set  you  in  a  corner  for  a  slop  tub.  You  will  be  a 
laughing  stock  for  the  devil  and  his  imps  through 
out  an  endless  eternity."  He  answered,  "Why, 
young  man,  if  you  could  convince  me  there  was  a 
hell  I  would  cancel  my  engagements  to  lecture 
against  Christianity."  I  said,  "My  brother,  I  can't 
convince  you.  The  Bible  says,  'The  fool  hath 
said  in  his  heart  there  is  no  God.'  The  probabili 
ties  are  that  you  will  never  get  your  eyes  open 
until,  like  the  rich  man  the  scripture  mentions,  you 
lift  up  your  eyes  in  hell,  being  in  torment,  and  you 
will  want  to  send  missionaries  back  to  preach  to 
the  Bostonites,  but  God  won't  let  you." 

Why  will  a  preacher  go  into  the  pulpit  on 
Sunday  morning  and  read  an  essay  on  Socrates, 
Cioero  or  the  Queen  of  England,  when  he  knows  it 
is  as  dry  as  Texas  wind  and  as  empty  as  a  last 


58  SUNSHINE  AND   SMILES 

years'  bird's  nest?  He  knows  it  won't  convict 
sinners,  convert  mourners,  sanctify  believers  or 
build  up  the  church.  Such  preaching  never  makes 
a  man  cry,  laugh,  mad  or  shout.  In  fact,  it  won't 
even  keep  his  congregation  awake.  While  he 
turns  the  pages  of  his  manuscript  many  in  his 
congregation  have  moved  to  the  land  of  Nod,  and 
the  official  board  have  consulted  napper  two  or 
three  times  and  report  everything  running  smooth 
ly,  no  excitement,  wild- fire,  or  fanaticism,  but  the 
church  in  a  prosperous  condition  and  a  bright 
outlook  for  the  future. 


It  matters  not  how  many  business  houses  close 
or  how  many  men  are  thrown  out  of  work,  there  is 
one  class  of  people  who  are  never  without  a  job — 
that  is  the  faultfinder  and  the  chronic  grumbler. 
They  have  a  job  the  year  round,  and  they  stick  to 
their  bush. 


I  had  rather  be  a  poor  rich  man  than  a  rich 
poor  man.  A  poor  rich  man  has  no  money  but 
plenty  of  salvation.  A  rich  poor  man  has  plenty 
of  money  but  no  grace. 


I  heard  a  man  one  day  butcher  up  his  neigh 
bors.  I  sat  and  meditated  as  he  paraded  their 
faults  and  weaknesses  before  me.  The  next  day 


SUNSHINE  AND   SMILES  59 

the  same  man  heard  me  preach.  He  came  up  with 
a  big  grin  all  over  his  face  and  said,  "Bro.  Bud, 
you  surely  butcher  up  the  English  language,  old 
boy."  I  said,  "Yes,  that's  what  people  tell  on  me, 
but  it  is  so  much  easier  on  a  man's  conscience  to 
butcher  up  the  English  language  than  to  butcher 
up  his  neighbor."  And  he  was  like  "a  sheep 
before  her  shearers — dumb,  so  he  opened  not  his 
mouth." 


It  is  wonderful  how  the  Lord  at  times  and 
under  some  circumstances  can  use  such  peculiar 
means  to  bless  his  people.  I  remember  one  morn 
ing,  on  one  of  our  leading  camp  grounds  of  Texas, 
we  were  having  a  testimony  meeting.  A  man  got 
up  and  told  a  long,  dry  experience,  and  as  he  sat 
down  the  thought  came  into  my  mind,  and  I  said, 
"My  friends,  that  is  a  Texas  long  horn."  As  I 
said  it  a  little  woman  jumped  up  and  told  a  red  hot 
experience  full  of  juice  and  fire,  with  a  shining 
face  and  her  little  hand  raised  to  Heaven.  The 
Spirit  seemed  to  fill  me  and  I  jumped  up  on  the 
platform  and  said,  "Glory  to  God,  that  is  a  short 
horn."  As  I  looked  at  the  great  congregation  I 
said,  "This  woman  did  not  give  us  a  herd  of  cattle, 
but  a  pitcher  of  cream,"  and  it  seemed  the  Spirit 
swept  down  in  great  waves  and  rolled  over  the 
people  till  they  leaped,  shouted,  jumped  benches 
and  hugged  each  other.  Sinners  wept  aloud  and 


60  SUNSHINE  AND   SMILES 

ran  to  the  altar,  and  it  seemed  to  us  that  rivers  of 
full  salvation  were  rolling  over  the  camp  ground. 
A  big  fellow  jumped  up  on  a  bench  and  said, 
"Where  did  you  get  that?"  I  said,  "From  the 
Lord,  I  guess,  for  I  never  had  it  before." 


There  is  something  very  peculiar  about  the 
grace  of  God.  When  a  man  gets  under  conviction 
it  is  up  to  his  ankles,  when  he  repents  it  is  knee 
deep,  when  he  exercises  a  living  faith  it  is  up  to 
his  loins,  when  he  is  converted  it  is  over  his  head, 
when  he  is  sanctified  he  has  grace  to  swim  in,  and 
when  he  is  glorified  he  goes  to  flying.  Well, 
Glory !  Isn't  it  grand? 

Christ  said  he  was  in  the  world  and  the  world 
was  made  by  him,  and  the  world  knew  him  not. 
He  also  taught  that  his  followers  are  to  be  in  the 
world  and  yet  not  of  the  world,  for  he  said,  "I  have 
taken  you  out  of  the  world,  for  the  world  will  love 
its  own  and  them  only."  So  you  see,  friend,  if 
you  keep  out  of  the  world  you  will  get  into  Heaven 
and  if  you  keep  out  of  Heaven  you  will  get  into 
Hell,  so  our  only  hope  is  to  take  the  scriptural 
route.  In  regeneration  God  takes  us  out  of  the 
world ;  in  sanctification  he  takes  the  world  out  of 
us. 

The  religion  of  Jesus  Christ  is  just  good  com- 


SUNSHINE  AND  SMILES  61 

mon  sense,  that's  all.  If  you  have  got  it  you  are 
a  sensible  man,  that's  all.  If  you  havn't  got  it, 
you  havn't  got  good  common  sense,  that's  all. 
(Prov.  1:7).  If  you  havn't  got  it  you  are  on  the 
road  to  hell — that's  all. 


I  have  known  a  man  to  say  things  to  his  wife 
that  almost  broke  her  heart,  and  not  have  man 
hood  enough  to  apologize  to  her.  A  week  after  he 
goes  to  town  and  gats  her  a  cheap  calico  dress — 
only  paying  a  nickel  a  yard  for  it — brings  it  home 
and  throws  it  down  in  her  lap.  He  is  trying  to 
patch  up  a  broken  heart  with  calico.  Friend,  it 
won't  work  that  way.  You  can't  heal  a  wound 
with  dry  goods.  It  isn't  calico  taat  woman  wants 
— it's  a  HUSBAND. 


Paul  says  in  Romans  5:20,  "More  over  the 
law  entered,  that  the  offence  might  abound.  But 
where  sin  abounded  grace  did  much  more  abound." 
The  contrast,  you  see,  is  between  grace  and  sin, 
and  Paul  declares  that  God  has  a  greater  quantity 
of  grace  than  the  devil  has  of  sin.  God  has  abun 
dance  of  grace  and  the  devil  has  a  meagre  supply 
of  sin.  He  is  scattering  it  profusely  over  this 
country  at  present,  but  the  day  is  not  far  in  the 
future  when  he  will  not  be  allowed  to  put  a  foot  in 
our  beautiful  land.  My  Blessed  Christ  will  bring 
the  angels  and  they  will  chain  him  and  lead  him 


62  SUNSHINE  AND   SMILES 

away  and  shut  him  up  in  his  dark  pit.  But  thank 
God,  grace  will  roll  on  like  a  mighty  ocean  forever. 
Well,  Glory  to  God,  it  makes  me  just  shout  to 
think  of  it!  It  is  the  finest  thing  in  this  world. 
This  is  not  a  vain  delusion  of  mine,  but  God  says 
it  is  so,  and  I  will  believe  it  or  die.  Hallelujah! 
The  real  meaning  of  the  text  is  just  this:  The 
supply  is  greater  than  the  demand,  or  the  plaster 
is  larger  than  the  sore.  If  you  have  a  piece  of  sin 
on  you  as  big  as  my  hand,  God  has  a  piece  of  grace 
as  big  as  a  bed  quilt  to  spread  over  it.  Well, 
Glory !  Or  to  make  it  real  plain :  If  the  country 
in  which  you  live  has  a  blotch  on  it  as  big  as  a  mud 
hole  in  the  road,  God  has  a  piece  of  grace  as  big  as 
a  640  acre  farm  to  cover  it  up  with.  Sin  is  limited, 
grace  is  not.  Sin  is  the  offspring  of  the  devil. 
Grace  is  the  offspring  of  God.  Sin  can't  rise  any 
higher  than  its  fountain  head — and  we  know  that 
is  hell.  Grace  can  rise  as  high  as  its  fountain 
head,  and  that  is  in  Heaven,  and,  thank  God, 
Heaven  is  above  hell.  God  is  greater  in  his 
resources  than  the  devil  is  in  his.  In  proof  of  the 
fact.  Sin  will  make  a  man  curse.  Grace  will 
make  him  shout.  Sin  makes  him  hate  his  neigh 
bor.  Grace  makes  him  love  his  neighbor  as  him 
self.  Sin  is  degrading  to  manhood.  Grace  is 
elevating.  Sin  will  take  a  nice  sweet  boy  out  of 
you  home,  put  him  down  in  slumdom  and  put  him 
to  feeding  the  devil's  hogs  and  rea,lly  put  him  be- 


SUNSHINE  AND   SMIEES  63 

low  the  brute  family.  Grace  will  go  down  there, 
get  that  boy  and  bring  him  out,  wash  him  up,  put 
clean  clothes  on  him  and  make  one  of  the  most 
respectable  young  gentlemen  in  the  country  out  of 
him.  This  proves  that  the  resources  of  grace  are 
inexhaustable. 

I  will  make  it  plainer  than  that. 

Now  just  hold  your  head  open  a  minute  and 
listen  while  I  talk.  I  remember  doing  a  day's 
work  for  the  devil.  I  worked  hard  all  day.  I  ate 
yellow  corn  bread  and  pumpkin  and  drank  water 
out  of  a  mud  hole  and  slept  on  straw,  dreamed  of 
dying  and  going  to  hell,  fought  with  devils  all 
night  and  waked  next  morning  tired  and  weary.  I 
thought  my  liver  was  out  of  fix  and  I  needed  a 
dose  of  Carter's  little  liver  pills.  What  a  delu 
sion! 

I  remember  doing  another  day's  work.  I  did 
not  work  as  hard  as  I  did  the  first  day.  I  preach 
ed  three  times,  rode  to  church  in  a  fine  carriage,  I 
had  sirloin  steak,  graham  toast,  and  celery,  jersey 
butter,  Irish  potatoes  mashed  up  with  butter,  a 
bowl  of  strawberries  by  my  plate  and  plenty  of 
rich  jersey  milk;  at  night  I  rolled  about  on  goose 
feathers  under  blankets  made  of  real  sheep  wool, 
dreamed  of  beautiful  mountains,  rivers,  rainbows, 
lovely  cities  and  angels,  awoke  next  morning  with 
my  heart  and  liver  both  clean  and  nice.  I  felt 
perfectly  rested  and  knew  that  while  I  slept  the 


64  SUNSHINE  AND   SMILES 

angels  had  been  fanning  me  with  the  breezes  of 
heaven.  I  wanted  to  put  one  arm  around  Jesus 
Christ  and  the  other  around  tne  whole  world  and 
bring  them  together.  As  I  was  fixing  to  start  the 
next  morning  the  preacher  in  charge  of  the  church 
where  I  had  preached,  put  three  five- dollar  bills  in 
my  hand  and  said,  "May  God  be  with  you,  my 
brother,  you  have  been  a  great  blessing  to  me  and 
my  people.  I  am  sorry  we  have  so  little  on  hand 
for  you  this  morning." 

Now,  reader,  if  you  can't  see  a  difference  be 
tween  these  two  days'  work  you  couldn't  see 
through  a  hogshead  with  both  heads  knocked  out. 


There  are  many  different  ways  of  getting  an 
income;  mine  comes  through  my  mouth  and  goes 
the  same  way.  A  man's  mouth  is  a  fortune  or  a 
misfortune,  owing  to  the  use  you  put  it  to  and  who 
you  use  it  for.  A  clean  mouth,  consecrated  to 
God,  may  bless  the  world  a  hundred  years  after 
you  are  dead.  God  said  open  thy  mouth  wide  and 
I  will  fill  it. 


I  have  met  so  many  people  in  my  travels  who 
told  me  they  hated  their  neighbors'  ways  awful 
bad  but  loved  his  soul,  I  always  feel  a  little  bit  un 
easy  about  him.  I  am  persuaded  if  you  will  boil 
down  your  hatred,  skim  it  and  analize  the  skim- 


SUNSHINE  AND   SMILES  65 

mings  you  will  find  you  hate  the  whole  fellow,  and 
John  said:  "If  any  man  hate  his  brother  he  is  a 
murderer,"  and  we  know  that  no  murderer  has 
eternal  life  abiding  in  him,  and  friend,  if  you  are 
hating  a  fellow's  ways  it  would  not  be  a  bad  idea 
for  you  to  go  to  the  mourner's  bench  and  at  least 
take  an  inventory  of  your  stock  of  goods. 

The  difference  between  a  preacher  and  a  county 
judge  is  this :  The  preacher  adds  one  to  one  and 
the  sum  is  one;  the  judge  subtracts  one  from  one 
and  the  sum  is  two.  We  beat  them  in  grace  but 
they  are  ahead  of  us  in  mathematics, 

We  are  printing  10,000,000  copies  of  the  Bible 
annually  in  325  different  languages.  If  one  Bible 
is  10  inches  long  the  10,000,000  copies  are  1,574 1-4 
miles  long.  Set  them  on  edge  and  they  would 
make  a  fence  8  inches  high ;  throw  into  a  square 
and  you  have  a  pasture  of  nearly  400  miles  square. 

Two  of  the  greatest  enemies  of  my  life  have  been 
the  carnal  mind  and  my  mouth.  The  carnal  mind 
would  get  up  at  the  wrong  time  and  my  mouth 
would  go  off  at  the  wrong  time.  If  I  could  have 
kept  a  watch  on  my  mouth  it  would  have  saved  me 
so  much  trouble.  If  there  was  a  law  passed  to  cut 
the  end  off  the  tongues  of  everybody  in  this  coun 
try  that  has  said  an  unkind  word  about  his  neigh- 


66  SUNSHINE  AND   SMILES 

bor,  you  would  see  this  fellow  packing  his  grip. 
This  land  would  make  you  think  of  the  confusion 
of  tongues  at  the  town  of  Babel. 


When  our  blessed  Savior  was  on  earth  he  work 
ed  a  miracle  to  raise  money  to  pay  his  taxes. 
Well,  bless  His  dear  name,  he  has  been  working 
miracles  to  pay  mine  for  the  last  twenty  years. 
Don't  you  know  I  love  him?  Of  course  I  do! 


A  religion  that  won't  keep  you  sweet  when  the 
cow  and  calf  get  together,  or  the  old  sow  eats  up 
the  chickens,  won't  oe  worth  paying  taxes  on  when 
this  old  world  gets  on  fire. 


The  reason  it  is  so  difficult  to  make  a  book,  is  the 
maker  is  required  to  spread  his  brains  out  on  pa 
per;  the  reader  will  see  at  once  that  this  is  indeed 
a  difficult  task.  In  the  first  place  you  have  got  to 
have  the  brains,  in  the  second  place  you  have  got 
to  spread  them  out,  and  last  but  not  least,  you 
may  not  have  them  to  spare,  as  times  have  been  a 
little  dull  and  there  has  been  quite  a  demand  for 
the  article  of  late. 


To  say  there  are  no  hypocrites  in  the  church 
would  be  false ;  to  say  they  are  in  my  way  would 
be  equally  false,  for  a  Christian  and  a  hypocrite 
are  not  on  the  same  road;  not  traveling  in  the 


SUNSHINE  AND   SMILE*  67 

same  direction  and  of  course  could  not  be  in  each 
other's  way.  The  only  way  a  fellow  can  be  in  my 
way  is  for  him  to  be  ahead  of  me,  and  for  me  to 
confess  that  hypocrites  and  sinners  are  in  my  way? 
My!  I  will  never  do  it  in  the  world.  Don't  you 
know  if  you  stumble  over  a  fellow  he  is  ahead  of 
you?  You  never  stumble  over  an  object  behind 
you. 

CHRIST  IS  ALL  IN  ALL. 

There  are  some  things  Christ  says  about  himself 
and  some  things  he  is  to  us  that  is  very  precious  to 
my  heart. 

"In  the  beginning  was  the  Word  and  the  Word 
was  with  God  and  the  Word  was  God.  The  same 
was  in  the  beginning  with  God. 

"All  things  were  made  by  Him  and  without  Him 
was  not  anything  made  that  was  made.  In  Him 
was  life  and  the  life  was  the  light  of  men. 

"And  the  light  shineth  in  darkness  and  the  dark 
ness  comprehend  it  not. 

He  was  in  the  world  and  the  world  was  made  by 
him  and  the  world  knew  him  not.  He  came  unto 
his  own  and  his  own  received  him  not. 

"But  as  many  as  received  him  to  them  gave  he 
power  to  become  the  sons  of  God,  even  to  them 
that  believe  on  his  name.1 

"Which  were  born  not  of  blood  nor  of  the  will  of 
the  flesh,  nor  of  the  will  of  man,  but  of  God.  And 


C8  SUNSHINE  AND   SMILES 

the  Word  was  made  flesh  and  dwelt  among  us." 
We  see  he  is  the  Word  and  he  says  I  am  come 
that  they  might  have  life.  He  says  I  am  the  life; 
I  am  the  light  of  the  world. 

Then  he  says  "I  am  the  bread  of  life.  This 
is  the  bread  which  cometh  down  from  Heaven  that 
a  man  may  eat  thereof  and  not  die." 

"I  am  the  water  of  life.'  'In  the  last  day,  that 
great  day  of  the  feast,  Jesua  stood  and  cried  say 
ing:  If  any  man  thirst  let  him  come  unto  me 
and  drink.  The  water  that  I  shall  give  him  shall 
be  in  him  a  well  of  water  springing  up  into  ever 
lasting  life." 

He  says  he  will  give  rest.  When  we  have  life, 
food  and  water  we  naturally  need  rest.  He  says : 

"Come  unto  me  all  ye  that  labor  and  are 
heavy  laden  and  I  will  give  you  rest.  Take  my 
yoke  upon  you  and  learn  of  me  for  I  am  meek  and 
lowly  in  heart  and  ye  shall  find  rest  unto  your 
souls,  for  my  yoke  is  easy  and  my  burden  is  light." 

Here  we  find  the  two  rests — rest  from  the  bur 
den  of  sin  and  guilt  and  the  rest  from  self  by  tak 
ing  his  yoke  and  becoming  meek  and  lowly.  Then 
comes  sleep.  And  so  he  gives  his  beloved  sleep. 
After  a  day's  work  there  is  nothing  so  refreshing 
and  sweet  as  a  few  hours  sleep  and  when  we  wake 
in  the  morning  we  want  the  way.  He  says:  "I 
am  the  way."  We  find  the  way  through  the  tomb, 
and  he  says:  "I  am  the  truth."  He  says:  "I 


SUNSHINE  AND   8MIEE8  69 

am  the  good  shepherd.  The  good  shepherd  giveth 
his  life  for  the  sheep."  How  can  the  sheep  go  in 
and  out  and  find  pasture  without  a  door.  Behold 
he  says:  "I  am  the  door;  by  me  if  any  man  enter 
in  he  shall  be  saved  and  shall  go  in  and  out  and 
find  pasture." 

Now,  back  behind  all  of  these  is  Our  redemp 
tion.  "In  whom  we  have  redemption  through  his 
blood,  the  forgiveness  of  sins,  according  to  his 
riches  of  grace."  Now,  after  having  our  sins  for 
given  we  need  to  have  the  sin  of  our  nature  taken 
away  and  we  hear  John  say:  "Behold  the  lamb 
of  God,  which  taketh  away  the  sin  of  the  world." 

We  are  now  ready  to  go  in  and  possess  the 
land  and  come  into  the  inheritance  of  our  riches. 
We  find  our  riches  in  him.  "For  ye  know  the 
grace  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  that  though  he 
was  rich,  yet  for  your  sakes  he  became  poor  that 
ye  through  his  poverty  might  be  rich.  But  my 
God  shall  supply  all  your  need  according  to  his 
riches  in  glory  by  Christ  Jesus." 

And  being  in  possession  of  these  great  riches 
we  need  wisdom  to  guide  our  affairs  discreetly. 
We  will  come  to  Jesus  again,  in  whom  are  hid  all 
the  treasures  of  wisdom  and  knowledge. 

"And  ye  are  complete  in  him  which  is  the  head 
of  all  principalities  and  powers.  For  in  him  dwell - 
eth  all  the  fullness  of  the  Godhead  bodily." 

"But  of  him  are  ye  in  Christ  Jesus,  who  of 


70  SUNSHINE  AND  SMILES 

God,  is  made  unto  us  wisdom  and  righteousness 
and  sanctification  and  redemption." 

"Well,  glory  to  God,  the  next  platform  we 
light  on  is  that  of  peace,  and  like  all  other  bless 
ings,  we  get  them  from  our  blessed  Christ.  About 
the  last  thing  he  willed  us  before  leaving  was  his 
peace.  "Peace  I  leave  with  you.  My  peace  I 
give  unto  you.  Not  as  the  world  giveth  give  I  un 
to  you.  Let  not  your  heart  be  troubled,  neither 
let  it  be  afraid.  And  the  work  of  righteousness 
shall  be  peace  and  the  effect  of  righteousness  quiet 
ness  and  assurance  forever." 

"And  my  people  shall  dwell  in  a  peaceable 
habitation  and  in  sure  dwellings  and  in  quiet  rest 
ing  places,"  for  "Great  peace  have  they  which 
love  thy  law  and  nothing  shall  offend  them,"  for 
"Thou  wilt  keep  him  in  perfect  peace  whose  mind 
is  stayed  on  thee  because  he  trusteth  in  thee." 

Then  we  have,  "Be  careful  for  nothing,  but  in 
everything  by  prayers  and  supplication  with 
thanksgiving  let  your  requests  be  made  known 
unto  God.  And  the  peace  of  God  which  passeth 
all  understanding  shall  keep  your  hearts  and 
minds  through  Christ  Jesus. 


THE  TWO  WORKS  OF  GRACE. 

It  is  remarkable  how  plain  some  things  are 
made  in  the  Bible  and  yet  some  people  that  claim 
a  large  quantity  of  brains  and  a  good  deal  of 


SUNSHINE  AND   SMILES  71 

grace  deny  the  two  works  of  grace  that  are  taught 
in   the  Bible.     I  have  heard  them  say  so  often: 

"Oh,  I  believe  in  sanctification  as  strong  as  you 
do,  but  the  two  works  of  grace  is  what  we  deny. 
We  believe  that  we  get  it  all  in  conversion  and  we 
don't  believe  the  Lord  ever  does  a  half  job  on  a 
fellow;  we  believe  we  get  everything  in  conver 
sion  that  the  second  blessing  fanatics  claim  to 
have." 

Well,  now  my  dear  friends  if  I  can't  prove  to 
you  out  of  your  own  Bible  that  you  did  not  get 
sanctification  in  conversion  I  will  obligate  myself 
to  sit  down  in  your  presence  and  just  eat  your  Bi 
ble  up  from  Genesis  to  Revelation  and  lick  up  the 
backs  with  out  sugar  or  salt  on  it.  Now,  just  lis 
ten  to  what  your  Bible  says.  Take  the  two  pray 
ers  of  our  blessed  Savior  and  compare  them  and  if 
you  will  be  honest  with  God  and  with  your  own 
soul  and  your  Bible  you  will  have  to  say  that  con 
verting  sinners  and  sanctifying  believers  are  two 
different  works  of  grace.  Take  the  first  prayer  of 
our  blessed  Lord  and  see  just  what  he  says — Luke 
23-34.  Now  hear  him:  "Then  said  Jesus,  Father 
forgive  them  for  they  know  not  what  they  do." 
Now  readers  if  conversion  and  sanctification  is  the 
same  why  did  not  the  Christ  of  Calvary  say,  Fath 
er  sanctify  them  for  they  know  not  what  they 
do?  Oh,  no  reader  you  can't  think  of  the  mob 
that  nailed  our  Lord  to  the  tree  and  gambled  over 


72  SUNSHINE  AND   SMILES 

his  coat  at  the  foot  of  the  cross,  seeking  the  bless 
ing  of  sanctification,  and  you  know  it.  Now,  hear 
the  second  prayer.  Read  John  17-9:  "I  pray  for 
them.  I  pray  not  for  the  world"  (or  for  sinners, 
as  the  world  in  this  place  means  unsaved  people.) 
"They  are  not  of  the  world"— John  17-16.  This 
verse  proves  that  they  were  not  sinners,  and  if  you 
believe  a  word  in  your  Bible  from  beginning  to 
end  you  will  have  to  confess  that  if  they  were  not 
sinners  they  were  Christians.  Christ  said  in  the 
9th  verse  that  he  wasn't  praying  for  the  world. 
Well,  if  they  were  not  sinners  what  did  Christ  want 
them  to  have.  Just  read  the  17th  verse  and  see : 
,, Sanctify  them  through  thy  truth;  thy  word  is 
truth."  Now,  neighbor,  you  have  the  two  prayers 
offered  by  the  Savior  for  two  classes  of  people.  In 
the  first  prayer  he  said,  "Father  forgive  them;" 
In  the  second  prayer  he  says,  "Father  sanctify 
then:."  Now  just  look  at  the  difference  between 
the  two  prayers  and  between  the  two  crowds  pray 
ed  for.  The  first  prayer  was  offered  for  the  rough 
rabble  that  were  driving  nails  into  his  hands  and 
feet,  casting  lots  upon  his  garment,  wagging  their 
heads  and  mocking  him  while  he  died.  The  sec 
ond  prayer  was  offered  for  his  disciples  up  in  the 
upper  room  just  after  they  had  eaten  the  passover 
and  he  had  instituted  the  Lord's  supper,  washed 
their  feet  and  had  his  last  conversation  with  them 
recorded  in  the  14th,  15th,  16th  and  17th  Chapters 


SUNSHINE  AND  8MIEE3  73 

of  John's  gospel.  These  are  the  same  men  that  he 
had  just  said  had  their  names  written  in  Heaven — 
Luke  10-20 — and  any  fair-minded  man  or  woman, 
black  or  white,  anywhere  in  the  United  States, 
knows  that  this  conversation  referred  to  in  John's 
g-ospel  was  not  between  Christ  and  a  mob  of  sin 
ners.  Now,  friend,  if  you  can't  see  that  one  of 
these  prayers  was  for  one  object  and  the  other  for 
another,  just  get  out  your  old  Bible  and  I  will  lick 
her  up. 

THE  THREE  DISPENSATIONS. 

Under  the  dispensation  of  the  Father,  salva 
tion  was  measured  to  us  by  the  cup.  The  Psalm 
ist  said:  "Thou  anoin test  my  head  with  oil,  my 
cup  runneth  over."  Under  the  dispensation  of  the 
Son  we  had  wells  of  salvation.  Our  biassed  Christ 
said  in  John  4-14:  "The  water  that  I  shall  give 
him  shall  be  in  him  a  well  of  water,  springing  up 
into  everlasting  life.'*  Under  the  dispensation  of 
the  Holy  Ghost  we  have  salvation  in  rivers.  Christ 
said  in  John  7:38-39:  "He  that  believeth  on  me 
as  the  scripture  hath  said  out  of  his  belly  shall 
flow  rivers  of  living  water.  But  this  spake  he 
of  the  spirit  which  they  that  believe  on  him  should 
receive,  for  the  Holy  Ghost  was  not  yet  given  be 
cause  that  Jesua  was  not  yet  glorified." 

Everything  seems  to  come  to  us  in  trinities  or 
trios,  both  good  and  evil.  We  have  on  our  side 


74  SUNSHINE  AND   SMILES 

the  Father,  Son  and  Holy  Ghost.  We  have  against 
us  the  world,  the  flesh  and  the  devil.  We  have 
God  the  Father  to  overcome  the  world  with,  Jesus 
Christ  to  overcome  the  devil  with  and  the  blessed 
Holy  Ghost  to  burn  out  the  flesh  with.  Well,  glory 
to  God,  they  that  be  for  us  are  more  than  they 
that  be  against  us. 

We  next  notice  that  the  grace  of  God  comes  to 
us  in  trios.  Paul  says:  "And  now  abideth  faith, 
hope  and  love,  these  three,  but  the  greatest  of 
these  is  love." 

Now  the  works  of  the  devil  are  manifold  in  a 
threefold  manner.  In  1st  John  2-16  we  have, 
"For  all  that  there  is  in  the  world,  the  lust  of  the 
flesh,  and  the  lust  of  the  eyes,  and  the  pride  of  life 
not  of  the  Father,  but  is  of  the  world."  Now, 
you  see,  friend,  we  have  all  the  combined  forces  of 
earth  and  hell  to  fight  and  let's  see  to  it  at  once 
that  we  "put  on  the  whole  armour  of  God,  that  we 
may  be  able  to  stand  against  the  wiles  of  the  devil 
for  we  wrestle  not  against  flesh  and  blood,  but 
against  powers,  against  the  rulers  of  this  world, 
against  spiritual  wickedness  in  high  places,  where 
fore  take  unto  you  the  whole  armour  of  God,  that 
ye  may  be  able  to  withstand  in  the  evil  day  and 
having  done  all  to  stand.  Stand  therefore  having 
your  loins  girth  about  with  the  truth  and  having 
on  the  breastplate  of  righteousness  and  your  feet 
shod  with  the  preparation  of  the  gospel  of  peace." 


SUNSHINE  AND   SMILES  75 

We  next  notice  that  there  are  three  places  of 
abode  spoken  of  in  the  Bible:  this  world,  heaven 
and  hell.  At  present  we  are  in  this  world,  in  a  short 
time  we  will  be  in  heaven  or  hell  one.  A  life  of 
righteousness  and  holiness  will  prepare  you  for  a 
home  in  heaven  with  God  and  the  angels  and  the 
redeemed  saints  of  all  ages,  while  a  life  of  sin  and 
unbelief  will  prepare  you  to  spend  a  life  with  the 
devil  and  the  lost  in  an  awful  hell. 

Then  we  have  three  classes  of  people :  the  first 
is  the  condemned  sinner;  the  second  is  the  justfied 
child  of  God ;  the  third  is  the  wholly  sanctified 
Christian.  The  sinner  does  not  fear  God  or  serve 
him  at  all ;  while  the  justified  person  serves  God 
from  a  sense  of  duty  and  fear;  and  the  sanctified 
from  a  sense  of  love  and  privilege. 


I  know  of  nothing  that  brings  greater  joy  to 
my  heart  than  to  know  that  God  will  trust  me  as 
far  as  I  trust  him.  If  I  trust  him  clear  up  to 
Heaven  he  will  trust  me  clear  down  to  earth.  If  I 
will  trust  him  all  over  Heaven  he  will  trust  me  all 
over  the  earth.  When  we  trust  each  other  we  rely 
on  and  confide  in  each  other.  How  blessed  the 
fellowship. 

Success  and  succeed  are  twin  brothers  and  are 
the  sons  of  Industry  and  Determination,  and  they 
have  never  made  a  failure  politically,  socially, 
financially,  mentally  or  spiritually. 


76  SUNSHINE  AND   SMILES 

So  many  people  have  told  me  the  churches  are 
all  dead,  but  I  can't  believe  it;  for  as  long  as  an 
institution  can  play  cards,  fry  oysters  or  get  up  a 
brooin  drill  they  surely  have  some  evidences  of 
life,  and  as  long  "As  the  lamp  holds  out  to  burn 
the  vilest  sinner  may  return." 

One  of  the  greatest  needs  of  the  Holiness 
movement  is  more  hands  to  put  on  plasters  and 
fewer  hands  to  skin.  Human  hides  are  awful 
cheap  now.  It  may  be  because  money  is  so  scarce. 
I  am  not  eure  about  that,  as  there  has  not  been  a 
great  demand  for  human  hides  for  the  last  two  or 
three  centuries. 

Now,  the  object  of  a  plaster  is  to  draw.  You 
remember  Christ  said:  "If  I  be  lifted  up  I  will 
draw  all  men  unto  me."  Brother,  you  shake  up 
your  head  a  little  and  see  if  you  can  see  any  diff 
erence  between  skinning  and  drawing.  I  have 
seen  the  hardest  sinners  of  the  land  stand  in  the 
hot  sun  for  several  hours  to  hear  about  the  Man 
that  wore  the  seamless  coat,  while  you  can't  keep 
a  crowd  thirty  minutes  to  hear  about  hoofs  and 
horns.  Do  you  see  any  difference? 

ADAM  THE  FIRST. 

Adam  was  not  born  like  the  rest  of  us  folks. 
He  was  created  out  of  the  dust  of  the  earth  about 
January  6th,  in  the  year  One.  He  was  not  a  Sev- 


SUNSHINE  AND   SMILES  77 

enth  Day  Adventist  for,  the  Lord  made  him  late 
Saturday  evening.  The  next  day  was  Sunday 
and  of  course  the  first  day  Adam  ever  saw.  The 
Lord  rested  that  day  ,froni  his  work.  Adam 
had  not  done  anything  and  was  not  tired,  but  he 
kept  the  first  day  with  the  Lord.  You  see  it  was 
the  seventh  day  with  the  Lord,  but  Eve  was  prob 
ably  made  about  January  8th  in  the  same  year 
with  Adam.  It  is  likely  when  Adam  woke  upon 
Monday  morning  he  found  Eve  there.  The  book 
says  she  was  made  out  of  one  of  Adam's  ribs.  It 
has  always  seemed  that  woman  had  finer  material 
in  her  than  man.  I  suppose  it  is  because  man  was 
made  out  of  the  dust  of  the  earth  and  woman  out 
of  a  man's  rib.  Doubtless  Adam  and  Eve  loved 
at  sight.  Well,  why  not?  Who  ever  saw  a  fellow 
who  did  not  love  his  own  bones.  Adam  can  truth 
fully  say  he  was  the  first  man  on  earth  who  lost  a 
bone. 

I  suppose  Adam  and  Eve  started  out  in  life 
with  the  finest  prospects  before  them  of  any  young 
couple  that  ever  started  in  this  world,  but  like 
many  folks  now-a-days,  they  did  not  run  long 
until  they  collapsed.  They  sinned  against  God 
and  lost  their  beautiful  home  in  Eden.  The  Lord 
sent  them  out  to  till  the  ground.  Adam  had  no 
idea  that  he  was  the  first  farmer  on  earth,  but  as 
he  went  to  tilling  the  ground  he  felt  like  he  was 
scratching  his  mother's  head  and  to  his  surprise 
at  every  scratch  he  found  a  piece  of  bread,  and  as 


78  SUNSHINE  AND   SMILES 

he  plowed  tkrough  the  field  Mother  Earth  looked 
on  her  first  son  and  smiled  and  said:  "My  son  is 
making  his  mark  in  the  world." 


Well,  Glory  to  God!  In  conversation  with  the 
dear  Lord  this  morning  I  said  "Lord  where  must  I 
get  to  keep  from  falling?"  "Why,"  he  said,  "my 
son  get  on  the  bottom."  Well,  Glory.  "Can't  a 
preacher  fall  from  the  bottom?"  "No."  The 
Lord  said,  "There  is  no  place  below  the  bottom." 
Well,  Hallelujah!  I  looked  around  and  to  my  sur 
prise  I  found  that  the  home  of  my  blessed  Christ 
was  at  the  bottom. 


A  CHURCH  ENTERTAINMENT. 

I  suppose  Moses  left  about  as  spiritual  a  con 
gregation  as  most  preachers,  when  he  went  on 
Mt.  Sinai  and  was  only  gone  about  forty  days  and 
to  his  surprise  when  he  got  back  in  hearing  of  the 
multitude,  they  had  forsaken  God  and  gone  after  a 
calf,  and  worse  still  it  was  a  home-made  calf. 
You  see  Aaron's  calf  was  a  kind  of  church  enter 
tainment  affair.  The  first  one  I  suppose  the  boys 
ever  got  up.  The  object  of  the  calf  show  was  to 
take  the  place  of  God  and  the  Holy  Ghost.  This 
church  entertain rnent  was  a  failure,  as  all  its  suc 
cessors  have  been  and  ended  in  raising  a  dust  and 
breaking  the  ten  commandments. 


79 

When  a  preacher  says  a  great  deal  about  loy 
alty  to  the  church  his  members  say  but  little  about 
holiness  to  the  Lord.  If  he  ts  a  tobacco  chewer 
his  members  seldom;  if  he  is  a  smoker  they  never 
shout;  if  he  goes  to  the  theater^they  go  to  the  ball 
room,  tho  circus,  card  table  and  wine  suppers. 
You  see  the  shepherd  feeds  the  flock  and  when 
you  see  the  sheep  you  can  tell  what  the  shepherd 
has  been  feeding  them  on.  No  use  to  consult  the 
shepherd.  If  the  sheep  are  poor  and  sickly 
and  their  wool  full  of  cockle  burrs  and  Spanish 
needles,  you  can  tell  at  a  glance  just  the  kind  of 
pasture  the  sheep  have  been  grazed  on.  No  use 
to  waste  time  going  to  look  at  the  pasture  just  get 
a  good  look  at  the  sheep  and  it  sufficeth  us.  Now, 
reader,  notice  the  shepherd  at  the  annual  confer 
ence.  He  comes  in  with  a  grass  sack  full  of  wool 
and  reports  a  glorious  out  look  for  the  church  in 
the  future.  'Tis  in  the  future.  If  God  will  furnish 
a  man  elbow  grease  and  create  for  him  a  mule, 
he  surely  ought  to  do  the  plowing. 


You  notice  around  depots,  hotels  and  many 
public  places,  "No  loafing  allowed  here."  Who 
ever  saw  that  sign  on  an  undertaker's  establish 
ment.  Ye  upper  and  lower  tens  dread  the  black 
box  and  a  hole  in  the  ground  at  the  end  of  your  life 
for  "It  is  appointed  unto  man  once  to  die,  but  after 
this  the  Judgment." 


80  SUNSHINE  AND  SMILES 

To  endure  to  the  end  doesn't  mean  to  endure 
your  religion.  You  endure  a  corn  on  your  toe  or  a 
carbuncle  on  your  neck. 

You  need  to  belong  to  the  Aid  Society.  You 
are  needing  help. 

An  abundant  entrance  doesn't  mean  hub- 
bing  the  gate  post  on  each  side  or  escaping  hell  by 
the  skin  of  the  teeth. 


I  have  seen  young  women  come  to  the  altar 
chewing  gum  and  fanning  themselves  with  a  little 
silk  fan  and  say  "I  don't  care  anything  about  it 
myself  Brother  Bud.  If  the  Lord  wants  to  save 
me  I'm  willing"  My!  my!  Sister,  your  head  i& 
clabber  on  both  sides. 

I  have  heard  people  say  "I  believe  in  Holiness 
but  I  don't  believe  in  sanctification.  "They  are 
like  the  old  woman  who  loved  mutton  but  couldn't 
eat  sheep.  She  felt  like  she  was  getting  wool  in 
her  teeth. 


How  many  little  flirts  I  have  seen  go  to  a  little 
dance,  (a  kind  of  a  hugging  school)  come  home  at 
the  break  of  day  looking  like  a  greasy  dish  rag, 
rub  off  the  prepared  chalk  and  paint,  take  off  the 
false  curls  and  want  to  commit  suicide. 


SUNSHINE  AND   SMILES  81 

You  can't  draw  on  the  bank  for  what  you 
used  to  have,  You  can  only  check  out  what  you 
have  in  it  now. 


Some  people  say  they  can't  stand  Bud  Rob 
inson.  Well,  I'm  not  good  looking  nor  brainy, 
but  if  you  don't  love  me  the  devil  will  get  you. 


If  you  blaze  every  tree,  tunnel  a  hole  through 
every  mountain,  make  a  bridge  over  every  river, 
it  looks  like  I  could  find  the  way  and  wouldn't  just 
quit  the  road  and  go  out  into  the  woods.  Well, 
my  friends  the  Bible  is  plainer  than  that  and  it 
looks  like  you  could  find  the  way  to  Heaven. 


I  have  had  folks  make  fun  of  me  for  not  using 
good  grammar  when  the  only  way  they  had  their 
name  in  the  county  paper  was  when  their  father 
had  paid  them  out  of  a  scrape.  I've  had,  at  times, 
preachers  make  fun  of  my  English  when  the  only 
tears  shed  under  their  ministry  were  the  tears  of 
babies  crying  for  water.  My  brother,  if  I  were 
you  and  couldn't  tree  a  possum  I  wouldn't  kill  the 
dog  who  did. 


Sanctification  is  free.  You  have  to  give  your 
self  for  it,  but  you  are  nothing  and  you  give  your 
self  (nothing)  for  it.  God  takes  what  you  thiit;. 
you  are  and  gives  you  sanotification. 


82  SUNSHINE  AND   SMILES 

The  Lord  wants  all  my  sins.  He  said  he 
would  bury  them  in  the  depths  of  the  sea.  Then 
he  said  "perhaps  Buddie  will  go  diving  some  day 
and  find  them,"  so  he  said  "I  will  separate  them 
from  him  as  far  ae  the  east  is  from  the  west." 
Then  he  said:  "He  may  fiy  over  there  when  he 
gets  his  golden  wings,"  so  he  said  "I'll  beat  that, 
Buddie  I'll  blot  them  out  of  the  book  of  remen:  - 
brance  forever." 


There  are  so  many  things  we  common  people 
don't  know,  and  in  fact  never  heard  of,  that  we 
surely  ought  to  keep  our  heads  open.  We 
see  a  great  college  president  going  down  the 
streets  of  our  cities  on  a  beautiful  automobile  and 
we  notice  a  little  platform  on  a  street  corner,  and  a 
monkey  with  red  breeches  on  cutting  monkey 
shines,  while  the  boys  give  him  sugar.  We  see  the 
president  slow  up  his  automobile  and  his  great 
heart  seems  to  warm  up  to  the  monkey.  He  takes 
out  his  family  record  and  shows  us  the  very  year 
that  his  folks  and  the  monkey's  family  lived  in 
the  same  hollow  log.  I  tell  you  it  makes  us  coun 
try  boys  scratch  our  heads.  Presently  the  presi 
dent  pulls  the  lever  of  his  automobile  and  goes  up 
the  street  at  the  rate  of  30  miles  an  hour  and  pres 
ently  he  slows  up  again  and  we  notice  on  the  cor 
ner  a  Turkish  boy  and  a  cinnamon  bear  wrestling 
together  and  every  time  the  bear  throws  the  boy  it 
nearly  tickles  the  president  to  death  and  he  says: 


SUNSHINE  AND   8MIEES  S3 

"We  are  still  ahead."  Again  he  takes  out  his 
family  record  and  can  show  you  the  exact  year 
that  his  great- great-great-grandfather  was  united 
in  holy  wedlock  to  Miss  Cinnamon  Bear.  As  the 
little  Turk  leads  the  bear  away  the  president  smiles 
and  says:  "Now  just  look  at  me  and  see  what  a 
wonderful  improvement  we  have  made  on  our 
family."  We  country  boys  just  grin  and  say  what 
a  pity  we  uneducated  people  have  lost  our  family 
record.  We  go  on  up  the  street  a  little  farther, 
we  meet  a  rich  woman  driving  down  the  street  in  a 
beautiful  carriage,  with  diamonds  flashing  from 
her  ears,  gold  bands  on  her  fingers  and  arms. 
She  is  embracing  a  poodle  dog.  We  say:  "Well, 
I  guess  she  has  met  one  of  her  cousins — for  every - 
,body  knows  that  a  woman  has  a  perfect  right  to 
hug  her  kinfolks — and  we  country  folks  just  make 
up  our  minds  that  we  are  not  in  the  thing  at  all. 

A  few  months  ago  in  one  of  the  little  cities 
in  Texas  where  I  was  preaching  a  Methodist 
preacher  sent  for  me  to  come  to  his  study  and  talk 
with  him.  I  went  over  at  the  appointed  hour  and 
met  a  very  pleasant  looking  gentleman ;  looked  to 
be  about  fifty  years  of  age.  In  our  conversation 
he  told  me  he  had  gone  through  school,  traveled 
abroad  and  read  all  the  books,  and  had  never 
seen,  heard  or  felt  anything  that  convinced  him  we 
Holiness  people  were  right.  Ho  said  the  thing 
that  we  called  the  old  man  or  the  carnal  mind  did 
not  exist.  He  said  in  proof  of  the  fact:  "Our 


84  SUNSHINE  AND   SMILES 

children  were  born  as  pure  as  angels  and  as  free 
from  depravity  as  an  archangel."  I  told  him  I 
could  not  believe  my  children  were  anything  like 
angels.  If  my  babies  were  a  type  of  Heaven  the 
war  was  not  settled  up  there  yet.  "Well,"  he 
said;  "Brother  Robinson,  you  are  honest  in  what 
you  believe  but  your  trouble  is  ignorance.  You 
Holiness  people  know  nothing  of  scholarship  and 
you  are  under  an  awful  delusion.  You  think  this 
thing  is  so  and  I  am  sorry  for  you."  I  replied: 
"Brother,  the  people  I've  been  raised  with  drink 
and  swear,  lie,  steal,  chew  tobacco,  fight  and  even 
kill.  Now  what  on  earth  ails  my  kin  folks?" 

"Oh,"  he  said,  "they  learned  it  from  their 
parents."  I  replied,  "Who  did  their  parent  learn 
it  from?" 

He  said  they  were  an  uneducated  people; 
that  he  admired  me  for  my  "git  up  and  git"  and 
heart  of  love  and  zeal,  but  you  cry  over  the  people 
just  like  they  were  in  an  awful  condition.  I  re 
plied:  "They  are." 

"No,"  he  said,  "It  is  a  delusion  you  Holiness 
people  are  under." 

I  said,  "you  surely  believe  these  sinners  of  this 
country  are  on  the  road  to  an  awful  hell," 

"No,"  he  said,  "  that  is  your  ignorance  again. 
If  the  children  of  this  country  were  brought  up 
right  they  wonld  not  need  anything  at  all."  That 
he  was  brought  up  right  and  never  needed  a  thing 


SUNSHINE  AND   SMILES  85 

on  earth   that  we   Holiness  people  talked  so  much 
about. 

I  told  him  I  was  sorry  I  was  brought  up  so 
poorly,  but  I  was  sure  I  needed  everything  God 
had  for  me.  Our  conversation  closed  late  Satur 
day  evening.  On  Monday  evening  following,  at  a 
church  entertainment,  he  and  a  young  man  had  a 
serious  racket.  In  less  than  one  month  from  this 
time  this  preacher  got  on  a  drunk,  painted  the 
town  red,  sent  his  credentials  up  to  the  presiding 
elder  and  told  him  he  had  "found  out  religion  was 
bosh." 

"Now,  reader,  put  on  your  spectacles  and  see 
if  you  can  find  any  thing  that  would  prove  to  you 
that  the  human  family  was  out  of  gear.  I  see 
things  that  convince  me,  but  I  don't  know  much. 
Now  you  look  over  by  a  church  racket  and  up  the 
street  and  see  a  D.  D.  on  a  whiz  and  see  if  you 
can  see  anything  that  makes  you  think  of  angels. 


People  talk  to  me  of  their  good  blood ;  about 
their  Cousin  William,  who  was  a  merchant,  doctor 
or  lawyer.  Why  don't  you  talk  about  your  Cousin 
John  some?  He  likely  is  in  the  pen  for  killing  a 
negro. 

My  brother,  if  they  tell  you  to  give  up  your  con 
science  or  give  up  your  church — as  you  have  only 
one  conscience  and  there  are  many  churches — just 


86  SUNSHINE  AND   SMILES 

pack  your  grip,  call  your  dog  and  start  and  keep 
going  until  the  Lord  stops  you. 

I  lived  by  an  infidel  once.  He  was  the  most 
foul  mouthed  man  and  had  the  sweetest  little  Chris 
tian  wife  I  ever  saw.  He  would  make  fun  of  re 
ligion  most  every  day,  when  we  met  at  the  end  of 
our  rows  at  the  field,  but  he  was  subject  to  the 
cramp  colic.  His  wife  would  come  over  about 
once  a  month  in  great  haste  and  say:  "Bud  1 
believe  Bill  will  die  this  time.  He's  got  the  worst 
spell  of  cramp  colic  he  ever  did  have.  You  must 
come  over  and  pray  for  him." 

I'd  go  over  and  find  him  rolling  from  one 
side  of  the  bed  to  the  other,  holding  his  stomach 
and  saying:  "Oh,  Lord,  if  there  be  a  Lord,  have 
mercy  on  me,  if  there  is  any  such  a  thing  as 
mercy." 

I'd  get  on  one  side  of  the  bed  and  Mary  on  the 
other,  and  pray  for  him  and  hold  him  on  the  bed. 
Along  toward  midnight  he  would  get  so  bad  he 
would  leave  out  all  the  "ifs"  and  say:  "Oh  Lord 
Jesus,  you  just  must  do  something."  He  would 
finally  get  easy  and  go  off  to  sleep.  For  the  next 
few  days  when  we  would  meet  in  the  fields  he 
would  have  nothing  to  say  against  religion. 
Toward  the  end  of  the  week  when  the  soreness 
began  to  get  out  of  his  stomach  he  would  begin 
making  fun  of  religion  again.  I  would  say  " all- 
right  old  boy  the  Lord  knows  where  you  live  and 


SUNSHINE  AND   SMILES  87 

He'll  be  around  with  another  spell  of  cramp  colic 
before  long."  He'd  grin,  clean  off  his  plow  and 
drive  off  whistling  through  the  field,  saying:  "Hit 
don't  amount  to  nothin."  But  inside  of  two  years 
the  cramp  colic  had  brought  him  where  we 
couldn't — to  the  altar — where  I  saw  him  stretched 
out  in  the  straw  one  night,  praying.  You  could 
have  heard  him  a  quarter  and  calling  on  his  wife 
to  have  Brother  Bud  pray  for  him  or  he  would  be 
dead  and  in  hell  in  a  minute.  I  got  down  again 
on  one  side  with  Mary  on  the  other.  In  a  few 
minutes  he  was  gloriously  converted.  He  picked 
me  up  and  hugged  me  and  said  "old  boy  I  always 
knew  there  was  something  in  it,"  and  went  shout 
ing  all  over  the  camp  ground. 


*  The  fellow  that  lets  his  religion  all  go  out  but 
a  *' spark"  is  in  a  "straight  betwixt  two."  He 
has  too  much  to  throw  away  and  not  enough  to 
keep.  If  he  stays  and  blows  the  spark  he  can't 
do  anything  else,  and  if  he  runs  to  get  kindling  it 
will  go  out  on  him. 


I  dreamed  one  night  of  going  to  Heaven  and 
eating  fruit  off  of  the  tree  of  life  as  big  as  my  two 
fists  without  any  peeling  on  it  or  seed  in  it.  It 
was  so  good  it  melted  in  my  mouth.  I  couldn't 
eat  Texas  grub  hardly  for  a  month  after  I  woke. 


"The  leaves  of  the  tree  were  for  the  healing  of 


88  SUNSHINE  AND   SMILES 

the  nations."     The  finest  salad  in  the  world  beats 
turnip  greens. 


When  this  old  world  is  wrapped  in  a  winding 
sheet  of  flames  you  will  forget  the  "mistakes  of 
Moses"  and  be  brought  face  to  face  with  your  own 
mistakes  and  misconduct. 


GOD'S  X  RAYS. 

• 

"For  the  Word  of  God  is  quick  and  powerful 
and  sharper  than  a  two  edged  sword,  piercing 
even  to  the  dividing  asunder  of  soul  and  spirit  and 
of  the  joints  and  marrow  and  is  a  discoverer  of  the 
thoughts  and  intents  of  the  heart. 

"Neither  is  there  any  creature  that  is  not  man 
ifest  in  his  sight,  but  all  things  are  naked  and 
open  unto  the  eyes  of  him  with  whom  we  have  to 
do."  Hebrews  4: 12,  13. 


As  long  as  the  carnal  mind  remains  in  the 
heart  of  a  regenerated  man,  he  has  to  give  the 
devil  outlet.  For  when  the  Christian  loses  his 
temper  and  smashes  up  things  the  devil  is  work 
ing  his  truck  patch.  It  is  like  one  man  owning  an 
acre  of  ground  in  the  midst  of  a  large  plantation 
belonging  to  another  man.  The  person  that  owns 
the  acre  can  go  through  your  plantation,  sink  a 
shaft,  start  a  foundry  and  throw  mud  and  slag  all 
over  your  plantation.  He  may  cause  you  a  great 


SUNSHINE  AND   SMILES  89 

deal  of  inconvenience,  but  as  long  as  he  owns  a 
truck  patch  in  your  plantation  he  can  go  in  and 
work  his  patch  in  spite  of  you,  and  no  matter  how 
fair  your  field  he  is  going  to  have  outlet.  Now, 
when  you  lose  your  temper  and  jerk  off  a  single 
tree  and  knock  your  mule  down,  stamp  the  ground 
and  pull  your  hair  you  are  just  giving  him  outlet 
and  you  see  he  is  scattering  mud  and  slag,  and 
when  you  get  mad  in  your  home,  jerk  out  a  bench 
leg  to  hit  your  dog,  grab  the  cat  by  the  tail  and 
throw  him  through  the  window,  scold  your  wife 
and  slap  one  of  your  children  over  you  are  prov 
ing  to  the  world  the  devil  has  still  got  an  outlet 
through  your  farm.  Do  you  think  you  will  ever 
grow  him  out? 

I  have  seen  a  man  in  his  field  at  work  and 
becoming  thirsty  would  call  to  his  wife  to  bring 
him  a  drink.  His  wife  in  the  house,  the  door 
closed  and  children  crying  would  fail  to  hear  him. 
He  would  call  the  second  time  when  she  would 
come  to  the  door  and  say:  "What  is  it  John?" 
He  would  yell  like  a  wild  Comanche:  "Where  on 
earth  is  your  ears  I  have  hollowed  for  an  hour, 
until  my  throat  is  cracked  open,"  when  he  had 
only  called  a  time  or  two.  If  you  were  to  ask  them 
if  they  believe  in  Holiness  they  would  say  ''Oh, 
no,  the  Bible  says  there  is  none  good,  no  not  one, 
and  I  am  a  poor  weak  worm  of  the  earth."  You 
see  the  devil  is  still  working  his  truck  patch  and 
getting  outlet. 


90  SUNSHINE  AND   SMILES 

I  have  seen  churches  where  they  paid  the 
preacher,  got  up  conference  collections,  sent  out 
missionary  money,  run  an  Epworth  League,  helped 
the  Christian  Endeavor  and  Young  Mens  Christian 
Association,  yet  lost  members  every  year. 

Now,  friend,  don't  you  know  if  I  was  running 
a  threshing  machine,  cooking  for  the  hands,  feed 
ing  the  mules,  raising  a  dust  and  burning  the 
straw  and  were  to  go  around  and  look  at  the  spout 
and  find  no  wheat  coming  out,  it  would  be  com 
mon  sense  in  me  to  quit. 

When  the  Lord  wanted  to  make  an  impression 
on  this  old  world  that  men  or  devils,  time  or  eter 
nity  could  not  erase,  he  met  Saul  of  Tarsus  on  the 
Demascus  road  and  pulled  him  off  of  his  little 
donkey  and  put  him  to  praying.  Three  days  later 
he  shook  the  scales  from  off  his  eyes,  charged  him 
with  compound  lightning,  wound  him  up  and  put 
him  to  running.  The  Lord  seemed  to  take  him  in 
his  own  hand,  dip  him  in  the  blood  of  Jesus  Christ 
and  write  across  the  face  of  the  earth:  "Follow 
peace  with  all  men,  and  Holiness,  without  which 
no  man  shall  see  the  Lord." 


The  gifts  and  graces  of  the  spirit  and  the 
weaknesses  of  the  carnal  mind  are  not  twin 
brothers,  as  you  might  suppose.  In  fact  they  are 
no  kin  at  all;  not  even  third  cousins,  for  while 
the  gifts  and  graces  seem  to  be  fragrant  with 


SUNSHINE  AND   SMIEE8  91 

grapes,  pomegranates  and  flowers,  freighted  with 
the  mountains,  lakes  and  rainbows  of  Heaven,  red 
white  and  golden  clouds,  dews  and  showers  of 
glory,  the  carnal  mind  seems  to  be  perfumed  with 
tobacco,  alcohol,  smoke  and  sulphur,  filthy  con 
versation  and  talking,  you  can  see  a  few  hoofs 
and  horns  and  broken  bones  scattered  along  the 
public  highway. 

My  friend,  when  you  pray  if  nobody  talks 
back  to  you  it  would  be  well  for  you  to  stop  long 
enough  to  find  out  how  you  stand  at  headquarters. 
It  may  be  possible  your  name  has  been  dropped 
from  the  ledger,  and  if  so  you  will  never  get 
another  answer  until  you  are  represented  by  the 
man  with  the  seamless  coat  on,  with  blood  and 
spittle  on  his  face  and  the  print  of  nails  in  his  feet 
and  hands  and  a  spear  print  in  his  side  and  a 
crown  of  thorns  on  his  head,  and  when  the  Father 
looks  into  the  face  of  this  mangled  victim  for  sin, 
if  he  is  pleading  for  you,  the  great  loving  heart  of 
the  Father  will  be  moved  with  compassion  toward 
you  and  he  will  talk  with  you  on  any  subject  and 
not  only  that,  but  glory  to  God,  He  will  give  you 
anything  he  has  got. 


How  unselfish  the  Father,  Son  and  Holy 
Ghost;  neither  of  them  ever  refer  to  themselves. 
How  different  from  ue  fallen  mortals.  When  we 
do  anything  it  is  I,  we  or  us.  When  God  the 


92  SUNSHINE  AND   SMILES 

Father  came  to  us  he  spoke  of  the  law;  when 
Christ  came  he  spoke  of  the  Father;  when  the 
Holy  Ghost  came  he  spoke  of  the  Son.  When  we 
get  converted  we  talk  about  going  to  Heaven; 
when  we  get  sanctified  we  talk  about  the  blessed 
Holy  Ghost,  for  we  then  have  Heaven  in  us,  the 
Holy  Ghost  revealing  to  us  the  law  as  our  school 
master  bringing  us  to  Christ.  He  reveals  to  us 
God  as  our  Father;  He  reveals  Christ  as  our 
blessed  Savior  and  Sanctifier,  and  himself  as  our 
abiding  guest.  He  makes  the  Fatherhood  of  God 
and  the  brotherhood  of  man  so  plain  that  not  one 
doubt  remains  in  the  heart  to  disturb  your  peace. 
But  he  enables  you  to  love  God  with  all  your  heart 
and  your  neighbor  as  yourself,  for  the  perfect  love 
of  God  will  cast  out  all  fear  and  doubt  and  selfish 
ness  and  make  you  like  Jesus  Christ,  the  most 
unselfish  being  that  ever  lived  on  the  earth.  So 
then  if  you  want  to  show  Christ  to  this  old  world 
you  will  have  to  get  rid  of  self,  for  as  long  as  there 
is  any  self  in  you  the  world  can't  see  Jesus  Christ. 
Remember,  friend,  the  world  don't  read  their  Bible. 
They  read  you,  and  when  you  buy  beefsteak  the 
butcher  is  to  feel  like  he  is  selling  meat  to  one  of 
God's  sons.  And  now  sister,  what  about  that  hat 
you  bought.  Do  you  suppose  the  woman  who 
sold  you  that  hat  felt  like  she  was  selling  one  of 
God's  daughters  a  hat?  Did  you  act  in  a  way  to 
convince  her  that  Jesus  Christ  lived  in  your  home? 
Now  the  Book  says  we  are  sons  and  daughters  of 


SUNSHINE  AND   SMILES  93 

the  Lord  Almighty,  and  if  we  don't  show  our 
Heavenly  Father  to  the  world  as  we  buy  and  sell, 
under  what  circumstances  then  are  we  to  show 
Him  to  the  world. 


An  all -round  man  has  two  legs,  two  arms,  two 
eyes,  two  ears,  one  mouth  and  one  nose.  His  head 
is  his  upper  end ;  his  feet  his  lower  end.  He  comes 
to  this  country  without  being  sent  after.  This 
country  is  under  no  obligations  to  him.  He  comes 
here  as  an  intruder.  The  country  has  a  right  to 
expect  great  things  of  him.  He  has  no  right  to 
expect  anything  of  this  country  and  all  he  gets  is 
gratis.  He  is  expected  to  wear  breeches  every 
day  and  to  go  barefooted  every  night.  He  should 
be  a  good  citizen,  a  good  neighbor,  a  good  and 
lo\ung  husband,  and  further,  he  should  be  a  man 
of  good  common  sense,  with  a  shining  face  and  a 
grand  appetite.  He  should  have  a  kind  word,  a 
smile  and  a  hand-shake  for  every  fellow  he  meets. 
He  should  lie  down  eight  hours,  stand  up  eight 
hours  and  sit  down  eight  hours  out  of  every 
twenty -four  in  the  year.  The  church  and  state 
have  a  right  to  demand  his  support;  he  should 
serve  both  cheerfully.  He  should  be  a  Christian 
worker  and  a  man  of  faith  and  great  pity.  He 
should  believe  the  Bible,  love  God,  serve  Him  and 
his  country,  walking  in  the  light,  leaning  on  the 
everlasting  arms,  drinking  from  the  fountain 
that  never  runs  dry  and  go  to  Heaven  in  the  end. 


94  SUNSHINE  AND   SMILES 

One  thing  I  have  found  out  by  watching  you 
all:  a  man  don't  eat  hog  long  until  he  begins  to 
grunt.  Does  it  make  him  sick?  I  don't  know 
what  ails  you.  You  may  become  hoggish. 

One  of  the  ways  to  succeed  in  life  is  when  you 
meet  with  what  the  devil  would  call  an  impossi 
bility  is  to  take  the  hand  spike  of  faith  and  turn 
the  thing  over  and  you  will  find  a  gold  mine  under 
neath  it.  You  can  ju»t  fill  your  pockets  and  go 
on  shining  and  shouting.  When  you  meet  with  a 
difficulty  just  put  the  saddle  of  faith  on  him  and 
ride  him  to  the  city  of  industry  and  tie  him  up  to 
the  poit  of  success  and  pray  down  an  old  time 
revival  that  will  cause  men  to  run  across  Jordan, 
shout  down  Jericho,  kill  Achan  and  march  up  and 
take  Ai.  When  you  meet  with  a  "surrounding 
circumstance"  and  the  enemy  says,  "Now,  just 
look  at  that,"  God  will  enable  you  to  take  the  key 
of  faith  and  walk  up  face  to  face  with  your  cir 
cumstances,  unlock  the  doors  and  go  into  his 
treasuries  and  you  will  find  an  old  fashion 
Tennessee  cupboard  filled  with  the  good  things  of 
life.  Oh  yes,  you  will  find  grapes,  pomegranates, 
old  wheat  and  barley,  milk  and  honey  on  every 
shelf,  and  you  will  have  nothing  to  do  but  lick 
honey  and  drink  milk,  and  shout  while  your 
enemies  lick  the  dust  and  flee  before  you. 

Well,  Glory  to  God,  who  said  the  devil  was 
ahead?  Not  I.  Well  bless  your  soul,  don't  you 


SUNSHINE  AND   SMILES  95 

hear  him  say,  "Fear  not  little  flock  it  is  your 
Father's  good  pleasure  to  give  you  the  kingdom." 
Bles«  the  Lord,  a  kingdom  surely  puts  man  ahead 
of  his  circumstances.  But  some  one  may  say, 
"what  is  a  kingdom?"  Let  the  Lord  answer. 
Hear  him.  Romans  14:17.  "For  the  kingdom  of 
God  is  not  meat  and  drink,  but  righteousness  and 
peace  and  joy  in  the  Holy  Ghost."  Well,  hallelu 
jah  a  man  with  a  kingdom  has  a  fortune  in  two 
worlds;  he  is  above  sin  and  the  devil  in  this  and 
a  stockholder  in  the  New  Jerusalem  and  is  a  mem 
ber  of  a  great  joint  company  that  is  known  as  the 
Upper  Tens  of  the  clouds,  who  make  headquarters 
on  the  banks  of  the  river  of  Life,  dwelling  under 
the  tree  of  life,  which  yields  her  fruit  every  month 
in  the  year  and  its  leaves  are  for  the  healing  of 
the  nations,  who  go  with  the  noise  of  many  waters, 
with  the  speed  of  lightning  and  in  company  with 
the  angels  and  Jesus  Christ  at  the  head  of  the 
band.  Praise  the  Lord  the  fellow  that  is  seeking 
seed  is  surely  a  flying. 


My  friend,  if  you  are  making  a  bea  line  for 
the  New  Jerusalem,  the  greatest  accusation  that 
will  be  brought  against  you  at  the  judgment  will 
be  that  you  saw  something  in  every  human  being 
worth  dying  for. 

The  devil  said  to  me  one  day  "The  Lord  is  not 
able  to  do  what  you  ask."  I  just  turned  to  my 


96  SUNSHINE  AND   SMILES 

Bible  and  read:  "Who  hath  measured  the  waters 
in  the  hollow  of  his  hand  and  meted  out  Heaven 
with  a  span  and  comprehended  the  dust  of  the 
earth  in  a  measure  and  weighed  the  mountains  in 
scales  and  the  hills  in  a  balance."  Had  you  con 
sidered  the  greatness  of  God  and  his  ability  to 
meet  our  necessities?  I  asked.  He  sneaked  away 
and  wasn't  hanging  around  my  premises  again 
for  a  week. 


As  a  people  we  have  done  many  exploits.  We 
have  bridged  the  rivers,  belted  the  mighty  deep 
with  our  ocean  liners,  tunneled  through  the  great 
mountains,  harnessed  the  lightning  and  put  it  to 
work,  but  just  ahead  of  you,  my  friend,  is  a  little 
stream  without  a  bridge  or  steamer.  You  can't 
swim  across  it  but  will  have  to  wade  through  it. 
It  is  so  cold  it  will  freeze  you  to  death.  It  is  so 
dark  you  can't  see  your  way.  When  you  reach 
the  banks  of  this  stream  you  may  see  a  torch 
light  procession,  shining  faces  and  hear  sweet 
music  on  the  other  side.  If  so  it  will  have  a  won 
derful  effect  on  the  chilly  waters  as  you  wade 
through,  but  reader,  it  may  be  possible  that  when 
you  reach  that  stream  you  may  hear  wails  and 
shrieks  of  the  lost  and  hear  the  victorious  shouts 
of  devils  as  they  drag  their  victims  througk  the 
muddy  waters  of  this  awful  river  of  death.  "Now 
is  the  accepted  time;  behold,  now  is  the  day  of 
Salvation."  2nd  Cor.  6:12. 


SUNSHIIfE  AND  SMILES  97 

A  TYPE  OF  CHRIST  AND  THE  CHURCH. 

I  have  seen  the  husband  leave  his  home  in  one 
of  our  little  towns  and  go  off  to  the,  city  to  work 
and  sometimes  stay  several  months  preparing-  a 
home,  and  finally  he  wires  his  wife  he  will  be  there 
•  on  the  next  train.  His  wife  gets  the  message  and 
her  heart  all  aglow  to  think  of  the  return  of  her 
husband,  she  gets  the  children  ready,  and  at 
leflst  an,  hour  before  train  time,  she  has  every 
child  washed  and  dressed  in  their  best  clothes  and 
is  off  to  meet  the  train.  She  takes  the  baby  in  her 
arms,  .leads  the  next  least  one  and  puts  two  or 
three  little  fellows  before  her  and  starts  in  a  trot 
for  the  d.epot.  Every  few  steps  she  is  hurrying 
them  up,  saying:  "come  on  sugar  pie  papa  is 
coming  home/'  and  her  little  heart  is  not  concerned 
about  anything  but  reaching  the  depot.  As  she 
goes  down  the  street  the  dressmaker  calls  out 
to  her:  "Silk  dresses  are  two  dollars  cheaper 
than  they  were  last  week,'*  but  she  pays  no  atten 
tion  to  silk  dresses,  she  ia  going  to  meet  her  hus 
band.  A  little  farther  down  the  street  another 
woman  calls  out,  "Hats,  fifty  cents  off  today. 
Ostrich  feathers  seventy-five  cents  a  piece,"  but 
she  don't  hear  anything  that  is  going  on  in  the 
business  world.  She  is  dead  to  everything  but 
meeting  the  bridegroom.  She  reaches  the  station 
and  says  to  the  porter:  "When  is  the  train  due?" 
He  answers  "In  ten  minutes."  She  walks  the 


98  SUNSHINE  AND   SMILES 

floor,  looks  out  at  the  windows  and  listens  for  the 
train.  The  ten  minutes  seem  like  hours.  As  the 
train  whistles  she  is  on  the  platform  with  everyone 
of  the  babies,  telling  the  little  fellows  to  wave 
their  handkerchief  at  the  train,  that  papa  is  com 
ing  home.  As  the  train  pulls  in  her  face  shines, 
her  eyes  sparkle,  and  she  says  to  the  children  do 
you  see  him?  Ke  is  looking  out  of  the  window. 
The  porter  says,  "stand  back  and  give  the  passen 
gers  a  chance  to  get  off,"  but  she  pays  no  atten 
tion  to  the  porter;  she  is  going  to  meet  her  hus 
band.  As  he  steps  to  the  platform  she  is  in  his 
arms  with  all  of  the  babies,  and  one  smile  from 
him  and  a  few  kind  words  is  worth  more  to  her 
than  all  the  silk  and  feathers  in  the  world.  She 
has  met  the  ideal  of  her  life  and  is  satisfied. 

Now,  friend,  how  different  this  picture  would 
have  been  if  while  her  husband  was  away  she  had 
proven  untrue  and  had  gone  to  flirting  with  the 
world.  Do  you  suppose  she  would  have  rejoiced 
when  she  received  the  telegram?  Or  do  you  think 
she  would  have  gone  to  the  depot  with  the  chil 
dren?  Not  much.  She  would  have  sulked  around 
and  said  "it  disturbs  my  peace  to  hear  of  his  com 
ing  back."  Yes  she  would  rather  hear  of  anything 
in  the  World  than  to  hear  of  the  return  of  the 
bridegroom.  Why?  Because  she  has  proven 
untrue. 

So  with  the  church.  When  the  sanctified 
bride  of  Christ  hears  of  his  return  her  face  shines 


SUNSHINE  AND   SMILES  99 

and  she  begins  to  dress  up  the  children  and  sing 
and  shout  and  look  for  the  train.  But  take  the 
unsanctified  part  of  the  church  and  say  anything 
to  them  about  the  second  coming  of  Christ  and 
you  have  trouble  on  your  hands.  The  look  of  dis 
satisfaction  and  unrest  mingled  with  contempt  and 
disgust  proves  clearly  to  your  mind  the  bride  has 
lost  her  first  love  and  has  gone  to  flirting  with  the 
world.  If  you  belong  to  the  church  and  the  church 
belongs  to  Christ  and  he  has  gone  to  prepare  a 
home  for  his  bride,  on  what  grounds  could  you 
reject  his  return  and  retain  your  salvation,  for  He 
said:  "If  I  go  and  prepare  a  place  for  you  I  will 
come  again  and  receive  you  unto  myself.  Where 
I  am  there  ye  may  be  also  and  whither  I  go  ye 
know  and  the  way  ye  know." 

"Equal  rights  to  all  men  and  special  rights 
to  none."  Christ  knocks  at  my  door  here  and  I 
knock  at  his  door  over  there.  If  I  open  to  Him 
here  He  will  open  to  me  there.  Isn't  that  fair? 


The  Holy  Ghost  is  God's  officer  in  the  world, 
trying  to  arrest  the  sinner  and  bring  him  to  Jesus 
Christ,  who  is  the  judge  of  the  quick  and  dead,  and 
the  judge  will  pardon  every  sinner  that  will  yield 
to  the  officer  and  come  to  him  for  trial. 


100  SUNSHINE  AND  SMILES 


SOME  BIBLE  CHARACTERS. 

Adam  sinned  and  lost  Eden. 

Cain -was  the  first  murderer. 

Enoch  walked  with  God  and  was  translated 
and  was  the  father  of  the  oldest  man  that  ever- 
lived. 

Methusalem  lived  .to  be  nine  hundred  and 
sixty-nine  years  old. 

Noah  built  the  ark  and  escaped  the  deluge. 

Abraham  offered  up  Isaac  and  was  the  friend 
of  God  and  father  of  the  faithful. 

Lot  separated  from  Abraham,  pitched  his  tent 
toward  Sodom,  fled  from  tne  burning  city  with  the 
loss  of  everything  but  two  children. 

Isaac  was  the  father  of  the  first  twins  recorded. 

Jacob  was  the  father  of  the  twelve  patriarchs. 

Joseph  was  the  type  of  Christ;  the  beautiful 
dreamer.  He  wore  a  coat  of  many  colors.  He 
was  sold  by  his  brethren  for  twenty  pieces  of 
silver,  the  price  of  a  slave  under  age.  He  served 
fourteen  years  in  Potipher's  prison,  came  out  to 
rule  Egypt,  the  greatest  nation  then  in  the  world. 

Moses  led  Israel  out  of  Egyptian  bondage; 
was  the  meekest  man  that  ever  lived.  He  died  on 
Mt.  Nebo  and  was  buried  by  the  Lord.  We  have 
no  news  of  his  coming  back  for  fourteen  hundred 
and  fifty  years  when  he  came  down  and  spent  the 
night  with  the  Lord  on  the  Mt.  of  Transfiguration. 


SUNSHINE  AND   SMILES  101 

Joshua  and  Caleb  spied  out  the  land  of 
Canaan.  ......  ir 

Caleb  said  "we  are  well  able  to  overcome  it;  let 
us  go  up  and  possess  it/*  butthe  other  ten  preachers 
said  we  be  grass  hoppers  in  our  sight  and  in  their 
sight. 

Joshua  led  Israel  through  Jordan  into  Canaan, 
blew  down  Jericho  with  the  ram's  horn, .killed 
Ac  nan,  took  Ai  and  ruled  Israel  twenty -four 
years;  died,  being  a  hundred  and  ten  years  old. 

Shairigar  killed  six  hundred  Philistines  with 
an  ox  goad. 

Deborah  was  the  first  woman  that  ever  ruled 
Israel.  ,  • 

Balaam  was  the  only  man  that  ever  owned  a 
talking  donkey. 

Gibeon  took  three  hundred  men  with  twenty 
pitchers  and  lamps  in  them  and  oroke  the  pitchers 
and  put  to  flight  the  Midianites  ,  that  were  like 
grasshoppers  for  multitude*  . 

Samson  caught  three  hundred  foxes,  set 
their  tails  on  firfe  and  turned  them  loose  in  the 
Philistines'  corn  fields  and  burn«d  them  up ;  he  slew 
a  thousand  Philistines  with  the  jaw  bone  of  an  ass; 
he  broke  the  cords  and  withes,  pulled,  up  the  gate 
posts,  and  ran  away  with  the  loom  swinging  to  the 
locks  of  his  head,  but  he  backslid  and  his  enemies 
bound  him  and  put  out  his  eyes  and  made  him 
make  sport  for  them. 

When  a  preacher  backslides  the  devil   sends 


102  SUNSHINE  AND   SMILES 

him  out  to  make  sport  for  the  people.  Samson 
with  his  eyes  open  was  a  terror  to  his  enemies, 
with  them  out  he  made  sport  for  them.  So  with 
the  preachers  of  all  ages. 

Samuel's  mother  lent  him  to  the  Lord  when  he 
was  weaned  and  he  never  departed  from  the  house 
of  the  Lord.  From  the  time  he  was  six  years  old 
the  Lord  revealed  his  secrets  to  him. 

Saul,  the  son  of  Kish,  was  the  first  King  of 
Israel.  He  was  head  and  shoulders  above  his 
brethren.  He  was  a  great  warrior  and  chos»n  of 
God,  but  forsook  the  Lord,  sought  witchas  and 
committed  suicide. 

King  David  succeeded  Saul  as  King  of  Israel 
and  was  a  man  after  God's  own  heart.  He  slew 
Goliath,  the  Philistine  giant,  with  a  pebble  from 
his  sling.  He  was  the  greatest  general  the  world 
ever  saw  and  the  sweet  singer  of  Israel. 

Solomon,  the  son  of  David,  was  the  wisest  man 
that  ever  lived;  ruled  Israel  in  the  time  of  his 
father,  and  was  chosen  of  God  to  build  the  Temple, 
the  only  house  we  have  any  record  of  that  was 
ever  built  without  the  sound  of  a  hammer. 

Isaiah  was  the  gospel  preacher  of  the  old  dis 
pensation  and  wrote  the  obituary  of  Jesus  Christ 
seven  hundred  and  twelve  years  before  he  was 
born.  History  says  he  was  a  martyr  for  his  faith 
in  God  and  was  sawed  asunder. 

Jeremiah  was  the  weeping  prophet  and  saw 
the  church  in  a  state  of  apostasy  and  compared  it 


SUNSHINE  AND   SMILES  103 

to  a  piece  of  clay  in  the  hand  of  the  potter  that 
was  marred  on  the  wheel.  The  elders  became  en 
raged  and  cast  him  into  the  dungeon  and  he  sank 
down  in  the  mire  and  was  lifted  out  by  an  Ethi 
opian. 

Ezekiel  was  one  of  the  greatest  prophets  of 
the  old  dispensation.  The  modern  preachers  tell 
us  they  get  all  the  inspiration  they  need  from  the 
faces  of  their  congregation  on  Sunday  morning, 
but  suppose  Ezekiel  would  have  depended  upon 
the  inspiration  he  got  from  his  congregation.  His 
sermon  surely  would  have  been  dry,  for  he  had 
nothing  to  begin  with  but  a  valley  of  dry  bones, 
and  even  the  Lord  said  "Son  of  man  can  these 
bones  live?"  And  he  said,  "Lord  God  thou 
knowest."  He  was  blessed  with  the  privilege  of 
seeing  the  river  of  Life  flowing  out  from  beneath 
the  throne  of  God. 

For  a  living  faith  in  a  mighty  God,  Daniel  and 
the  three  Hebrew  children  have  never  been  sur 
passed.  Shadrach,  Meshach  and  Abednego  walked 
through  the  burning  fiery  furnace  and  came  out 
without  the  smell  of  fire.  The  reason  they  did  not 
burn ;  they  had  been  burned  out.  Daniel  read  the 
"hand  writing  on  the  wall,"  revealed  to  the  King 
his  wonderful  vision,  staid  all  night  in  the  lion's 
den  and  came  out  without  a  scratch,  all  because 
he  had  purposed  in  his  heart  not  to  defile  himself 
with  meat  from  the  King's  table. 

Hosea  was  one  of  the  minor  prophets  and  a 


104  SUNSHINE  AND  SMILES 

sweet  writer  in  Israel.  He  wrote  a  beautiful  letter 
to  a  backslidden  church*  but  she  didn't  repent. 

Joel  only  wrote  a  short  sketch — three  chapters 
—but  he  had  the  privilege  of  looking  down  the 
stream  of  time  eight  hundred  years  and  seeing  the 
mighty  pentecost  flooding  the  world  with  the  Holy 
Ghost. 

Amos  writes  the  necessity  of  God's  judgments 
against  Israel  and  the  certainty  of  Israel's  desola 
tion,  and  pictures  the  famine  that  was  to  be  in  the 
land,  not  for  bread  or  water  but  for  the  hearing  of 
the  worcls  of  the  Lord. 

Obadiah  only  writes  one  chapter,  but  he 
preaches  a  milghty  sermon  on, the  pride  and  deceit- 
fulness  of  the  human  heart. 

Jonah  has  a  mighty  following  today.  The 
Lord  told  him  to  go  to  Ninevah  but  he  started  to 
Tarshish.  As  disobedience  brings  trouble,  so  he 
didn't  run  far  until  he  was  shallowed  by  a  whale. 
He  traveled  three  days  and  nights  in  the  mighty 
deep  without  a  ship.  •  He  finally  made  the  landing 
and  started  for  Ninevah.  The  last  we  heard  of 
him  he  was  under  a  gourd  vine  pouting  because  he 
got  the  whole  city  to  the  mourners  bench  and  God 
wouldn't  destroy  them,  although  God  delivered  him 
when  he  found  an  altar  of  prayer  in  the  bosom  of 
the  deep. 


SUNSHINE  AND  SMILES  105 

There  are  whales  on  every  side 

With  their  mouths  open  wide, 
You'd  better  look  out  ray  friend 

A  whale  will  swallow  you. 

The  vision  of  Micah  is  beautiful.  He  looked 
through  the  telescope  of  time  for  more  than  seven 
hundred  years  and  saw  the  glory  of  the  church, 
the  birth  of  Christ,  his  victory  over  his  enemies 
and  the  church's  final  triumph. 

Nahum  was  blessed  with  a  two- fold  vision  of 
Christ.  He  saw  him  in  his  first  and  second  com 
ing.  In  his  first  vision  he  says  "Behold,  upon 
the  mountains  the  feet  of  him  that  bringeth  good 
tidings;  that  publisheth .  peace."  In  his  second 
vision  he  looked  down  through  the  ages  and  saw 
the  Salvation  Army  with  their  red  jackets  on,  gird 
ling  the  earth,  and  the  electric  cars  flying  through 
the  streets  and  calls  this  the  day  of  his  prepara 
tion"  i.  e.  "The  shield  of  his  mighty  men  is  made 
red,  the  valiant  men  are  scarlet.  The  chariots 
shall  be  with  flaming  torches  in  the  day  of  prepar 
ation  and  the  fir  tree  shall  be  terribly  shaken. 
"The  chariots  shall  rage  in  the  streets,  they  shall 
jostle  one  against  another  in  the  broadways;  they 
shall  seem  like  torches;  they  shall  seem  like  the 
lightning."  Chap.  2:  3,  4. 

Habakkuk  was  not  only  a  great  Holiness 
preacher,  but  one  of  the  greatest  temperance  lect 
urers  of  his  day  and  a  believer  in  the  Millennial 


106  SUNSHINE  AND   SMILES 

sign  of  Christ.  He  had  the  kind  of  Holiness  that 
goes  clear  through  with  the  Lord  and  didn't 
depend  upon  circumstances  for  his  experience. 
"Although  the  fig  tree  shall  not  blossom,  neither 
shall  there  be  fruit  in  the  vines.  The  labor  of  the 
olive  shall  fail  and  the  fields  shall  yield  no  meat. 
The  flocks  shall  be  cut  off  from  the  fold  and  there 
shall  be  no  herd  in  the  stalls." 

"Yet  I  will  rejoice  in  the  Lord.  I  will  joy  in 
the  God  of  my  salvation." 

"The  Lord  God  is  my  strength  and  he  will 
make  me  to  walk  upon  mine  high  places."  3:  17, 
18,  19. 

If  the  fig  tree  doesn't  blossom  he  will  have  no 
figs.  If  the  vines  don't  bear  he  will  have  no 
grapes.  If  the  olive  fails  there  will  be  no  oil,  and 
the  fields  yielding  no  meat,  will  leave  him,  literally, 
without  bread.  If  the  flocks  are  cut  off  there  is 
no  milk  and  butter  and  when  there  are  no  herds  in 
the  stall  there  is  no  meat,  yet  he  means  to  rejoice 
in  the  God  of  his  salvation.  You  see  he  is  deliv 
ered  from  this  world. 

As  a  temperance  lecturer  he  is  hard  on  the 
saloon  keeper  or  those  who  serve  wine  on  their 
tables,  for  he  says  "Woe  unto  him  that  buildeth  a 
town  with  blood,  and  establisheth  a  city  by  iniquty. 
Woe  unto  him  that  giveth  his  neighbor  drink,  that 
putteth  the  bcttle  to  him  and  maketh  him  drunken 
also.  Thou  art  filled  wtth  shame  for  glory,  and 
shameful  spewing  shall  be  on  thy  glory." 


SUNSHINE  AND  SMILES  107 

2ion,  and  Christ  as  the  "Branch."  The  golden 
candle  sticks,  with  his  seven  lamps;  the  two  olive 
trees  standing  by  it.  The  flying  roll  the  four 
chariots;  the  two  mountains  of  brass  and  the 
Kingdom  of  the  Branch,  or  the  reign  of  Christ. 

"And  the  Lord  shall  be  King  over  all  the 
earth.  In  that  day  shall  there  be  one  Lord  and 
his  name  one."  He  says  in  chapter  14:  9,  and  "In 
that  day  shall  there  be  upon  the  bells  of  the  horses 
Holiness  unto  the  Lord,  and  the  pots  in  the  Lord's 
house  shall  be  like  the  bowls  before  the  altar.  Yea 
every  pot  in  Jerusalem  and  in  Judah  shall  be 
Holiness  unto  the  Lord."  14:  20,  21. 

He  saw  worse  cranks  about  Holiness  than  we 
are. 

Malachi  was  the  last  prophet  of  the  Old  Bible. 
He  finished  his  prophesies  three  hundred  and 
ninety -seven  years  before  Christ  and  left  us  to 
grope  our  way  in  darkness  for  nearly  four  hundred 
years.  In  the  first  and  second  chapters  he  gives  us 
the  picture  of  a  backslidden  church  and  priests 
offering  polluted  bread  and  the  blind,  lame  and 
sick  as  sacrifices.  In  the  third  chapter  he 
shows  us  the  whole  nation  robbing  God  of  tithes 
and  offerings,  and  promises  if  they  will  bring  them 
in,  he  will  bless  them  until  they  can't  contain  the 
blessing,  opening  the  windows  of  Heaven  and 
pouring  it  out  upon  them.  He  also  describes  in 
this  chapter  the  fore-runner  of  Christ,  the  day  of 
Pentecost  and  the  sanctifying  of  the  preachers.  In 


108  SUNSHINE  AND   SMILES 

"Because  them  hast  spoiled  many  nations  all 
the  remnants  of  the  people  shall  spoil  thee,  be 
cause  of  men's  blood  and  for  the  violence  of  the 
land."  He  believed  Jesus  would  come  conquering 
and  to  conquer.  "For  the  earth  shall  be  filled 
with  the  knowledge  of  the  glory  of  the  Lord  as  the 
waters  cover  the  sea.*'  To  his  broad  statement 
concerning  the  Millennium,  see  second  chapter 
Habakkuk. 

Zephaniah  calls  Jerusalem  to  repentance, 
exhorts  them  to  wail  for  the  salvation  of  Israel. 
In  his  last  chapter  he  breaks  forth  in  rejoicing  and 
puts  the  daughters  of  Zim  to  singing  and  shouting 
saying:  "For  the  Lord  thy  God  is  in  the  midst  of 
thee."  3:  17. 

Hgagai  declares  that  because  the  people  live 
in  good  houses  and  failed  to  build  the  Lord  a 
house  that  they  should  eat  and  not  have  enough, 
drink  and  not  be  filled,  clothed  and  not  be  warmed. 
They  should  earn  wages  and  put  them  in  bags 
with  holes  in  them,  because  of  his  house  that  was 
waste  and  they  ran  every  man  to  his  own  house. 
He  would  shut  up  the  Heaven  from  dew  and  the 
earth  from  bringing  forth  fruit  and  would  call  for 
a  drought  upon  the  land.  Upon  the  mountains, 
land  and  oil,  upon  men  and  cattle  and  all  the 
labors  of  their  hands.  This  should  be  a  warning 
to  all  God's  people  to  look  after  his  house  first. 

Zephaniah  was  the  greatest  of  the  minor 
prophets.  In  his  visions  he  saw  the  redemption  of 


SUNSHINE   AND   SMILES  109 

verse  three  he  beautifully  describes  the  latter. 
"And  he  shall  sit  as  a  refiner  and  purifier  of  silver 
and  he  shall  purify  the  sons  of  Levi  and  purge 
them  as  gold  and  silver,  that  they  may  offer  unto 
the  Lord  an  offering  in  righteousness."  Malachi 
was  surely  a  Holiness  fellow  from  the  way  he 
believed  in  testimony.  He  declares  that  "they 
tb  at  feared  the  Lord  spake  often  one  to  another 
and  the  Lord  hearkened  and  heard  it  and  a  book 
of  remembrance  was  written  before  him  for  them 
that  feared  the  Lord  and  that  thought  upon  his 
name."  3:  16.  In  the  fourth  chapter  and  second 
verse  he  describes  the  people  of  God  as  calves  of 
the  stall.  "But  unto  you  that  fear  my  name  shall 
the  Sun  of  righteousness  arise  with  healing  in  his 
wings,  and  ye  shall  go  forth  and  grow  up  as  calves 
of  the  stall."  Thank  God  for  the  blessed  privilege 
of  being  stall-fed  calves. 


It  is  Christ-like  to  see  something  in  the  other 
fellow  that  is  better  than  the  things  you  see  in 
your  own  self. 

It  is  a  hopeful  sign  to  see  a  fellow  disgusted 
with  himself  but  satisfied  with  Christ. 


The  reason  Christ  paid  such  an  enormous 
price  for  you,  my  friend,  is  because  you  are  to 
live  with  him  forever. 


110  SUNSHINE  AND   SMILE8 

The  man  that  is  satisfied   with  the  world  is 

without  God.  The  man  that  has  God  doesn't  need 
the  world. 


We  are  all  pilgrims,  and  a  pilgrim  is  a  traveler, 
and  every  traveler  has  his  companion  for  life — the 
Holy  Spirit  or  the  evil  spirit.  My  friend,  which  is 
yours? 

A  good  way  to  get  along  with  the  other  fellow 
is  to  eat  bread  you  can  smell  perspiration  on  and 
you  will  have  the  problem  about  solved.  Do  you 
catch  on? 

If  the  church  is  dead  and  I  keep  on  fighting  it 
I  prove  to  the  world  that  I  still  have  faith  in  it 
being  resurrected,  or  I  prove  to  the  mind  of  every 
thinking  man  that  I  am  diseased  just  above  the 
ears. 

GOD'S  ABILITY  TO  SUPPLY  OUR  NEEDS. 

"And  God  is  able  to  make  all  grace  abound 
toward  you;  that  ye,  always  having  all  sufficiency 
in  all  things,  may  abound  to  every  good  work." 
2nd  Cor.  9:  8. 

There  are  enough  "alls"  in  this  scripture  for 
every  shoemaker  in  the  world  to  have  one.  God 
stands  behind  every  one  of  them,  and  they  are  all 
pointed  toward  you.  A  great  many  people  do  not 


SUNSHINE  AND   SMILES  111 

think  He  is  able  to  supply  all  their  needs,  but  I 
believe  he  is,  and  I  want  to  talk  about  the  abun 
dant  supplies  He  has  on  hand.  He  is  "able  to 
make  all  grace  abound  toward  you;  that  ye,  always 
having  all  sufficiency  in  all  things,  may  abound  to 
every  good  work." 

Now  let  us  see  if  He  is  able  to  do  for  us  exactly 
what  is  needed.  The  first  thing  we  need,  as  a 
lost  world,  is  God's  mercy.  Has  he  a  plentiful,  or 
a  meager  supply?  The  Book  tells  us  that  He 
has  great  quantities.  Peter  writes  to  the  "elect 
according  to  the  foreknowledge  of  God  the  Father, 
through  the  sanctification  of  the  Spirit,  unto 
obedience  and  sprinkling  of  the  blood  of  Jesus 
Christ,  grace  unto  you  and  peace  be  multiplied. 
Blessed  be  the  God  and  Father  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ;  which,  according  to  His  abundant  mercy, 
hath  begotten  us  again  unto  a  lively  hope  by  the 
resurrection  of  Jesus  Christ  from  the  dead,  to  an 
incorruptible  and  undefiled,  and  that  fadeth  not 
away,  reserved  in  Heaven  for  you,  who  are  kept 
by  the  power  of  God  through  faith  unto  salvation 
ready  to  be  revealed  in  the  last  time."  1st  Peter 
1:  2-5. 

Notice  in  the  third  verse  where  He  speaks  of 
His  abundant  mercy.  That  abundance  is  some 
thing  like  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  or  the  Rocky  Moun 
tains,  or  the  prairies  in  Texas.  You  ask,  "How 
big  are  those  prairies?"  Well,  there's  hardly  any 
end  to  it.  I  can  get  in  at  my  door  and  ride  hun- 


112  SUNSHINE  AND   SMILES 

dreds  and  hundreds  of  miles  and  see  nothing-  but 
prairie  land.  And  that  is  the  way  God  talks  about 
his  mercy. 

Is  there  anything  else  we  need?  What  would 
we  do  if  we  had  nothing  else  but  mercy?  Think 
what  pardon  means  to  a  world  condemned.  With 
out  it  what  would  have  become  of  me?  So  God 
likes  mercy  and  pardon,  and  they  make  a  fine 
composition. 

Isaiah  says:  "Seek  ye  the  Lord  while  he  may 
be  found;  call  ye  upon  him  while  He  is  near.  Let 
the  wicked  forsake  his  ways  and  the  unrighteous 
man  his  thoughts;  and  let  him  return  unto  the 
Lord  and  He  will  have  mercy  upon  him ;  and  to 
our  God  for  He  will  abundantly  pardon."  Isaiah 
55:  6-7.  And  he  goes  on  to  say  in  that  chapter: 
"For  my  thoughts  are  not  your  thoughts,  neither 
are  your  ways  my  ways,  saith  the  Lord.  For  as 
the  Heavens  are  higher  than  the  earth,  so  are  my 
ways  higher  than  your  ways,  and  my  thoughts 
than  your  thoughts.  For  as  the  rain  cometh  down 
and  the  snow  from  Heaven  and  returneth  not 
hither,  but  watereth  the  earth,  and  maketh  it 
bring  forth  bud,  that  it  may  give  seed  to  the  sower 
and  bread  to  the  eater.  So  shall  my  word  be  that 
goeth  forth  out  of  my  mouth;  it  shall  not  return 
unto  me  void,  but  it  shall  accomplish  that  which  I 
please,  and  shall  prosper  in  the  things  whereto  I 
sent  it.  For  ye  shall  go  out  with  joy,  and  be  led 
forth  with  peace;  the  mountains  and  the  hills  shall 


SUNSHINE  AND   SMILES  113 

break  forth  before  you  into  singing,  and  all  the 
trees  of  the  field  shall  clap  their  hands.  Instead 
of  the  thorn  shall  come  up  the  fir  tree  and  instead 
of  the  brier  shall  come  up  the  myrtle  tree,  and  it 
shall  be  to  the  Lord  for  a  name,  for  an  everlasting 
sign  that  shall  not  be  cut  off." 

Drop  back  to  the  tenth  verse.  "As  the  rain 
oometh  down  and  the  snow  from  Heaven,  and 
returneth  not  hither,  but  watereth  the  earth  and 
maketh  it  bring  forth  and  bud,  that  it  may  give 
seed  to  the  sovrer,  and  bread  to  the  eater."  Here 
let  us  stop  a  moment  and  think  of  the  greatness  of 
God.  He  has  undertaken  to  feed  this  world.  The 
whole  human  family,  with  all  the  birds  and 
beasts,  fish  and  insects,  would  all  be  dead  in 
twelve  months  if  the  Lord  did  not  produce  enough 
food  for  them.  For  everything  in  the  world  is 
within  twelve  months  of  starvation. 

If  the  Lord  did  not  create  anything 
else  everything  in  the  world  would  be  eaten 
up  in  twelve  months.  Look  at  the  fowls;  where 
do  they  get  their  food?  And  the  people  of  the 
earth.  It  must  take  at  least  nine  hundred  thous 
and  loaves  of  bread  a  day  to  feed  this  town  of  six 
hundred  thousand  inhabitants,  and  about  six  hun 
dred  thousand  pounds  of  meat.  Where  are  you 
going  to  get  this  great  quantity  of  food?  The  peo 
ple  of  the  land  are  complaining  of  the  drougth  and 
the  shortness  of  the  crops,  yet  our  markets  are 
groaning  under  their  hardens  of  meat  and  bread. 


114  SUNSHINE  AND  SMILES 

And  where  do  we  get  the  material  to  make  cloth 
ing  for  this  world?  Why,  the  Lord  God  has  cre 
ated  it.  There  isn't  a  man  in  the  world  with 
brains  or  skill  enough  to  make  one  Irish  potato, 
or  the  n  aterial  to  make  one  pair  of  breeches. 
Now  you  idfidels,  agnostics  and  skeptics  go  and 
butt  your  brains  out  against  the  wall  and  get  out 
of  the  way.  If  seed  potatoes  were  lost  tonight 
there  isn't  an  infidel  that  walks  the  earth  that 
could  make  an  Irish  potato  and  put  the  gercn  of 
life  into  it.  God  has  to  make  it,  and  He  can  do  it. 
He  said:  "Let  there  be  light,  and  there  was 
light/'  And  He  said:  "Let  there  be  potatoes," 
and  they  came  rolling  out  from  under  the  hills. 
We  have  a  very  poor  conception  of  the  ability  of 
God.  We  think  such  men  as  McKinley  and  Bryan 
great  men.  Why,  God  is  running  the  world;  yes 
and  ten  thousand  other  worlds  bigger  and  greater 
than  this. 

Now,  He  has  an  abundant  mercy  and  pardon 
for  a  lost  world,  and  he  says  he  is  able  to  make  all 
grace  abound  toward  you.  Isn't  He  doing  this? 
If  you  don't  love  him  tonight,  I  beseech  you  as  an 
honest  man  to  lay  down  your  foolishness,  or  quit 
eating  his  bread,  sleeping  on  hit  beds,  wearing 
his  clothes,  and  talking  about  him,  as  you  think, 
behind  his  back.  He  is  looking  at  you.  In  Gen- 
isis  16:  13  we  read,  "Thou  God  seest  me,"  and  in 
Hebrews  4:  12  it  says,  "The  word  of  God  is  quick 
and  powerful  and  sharper  than  any  two-edged 


SUNSHINE   AND   SMILES  115 

sword,  piercing  even  to  the  dividing  asunder  of 
of  soul  and  spirit,  and  of  the  joints  and  marrow, 
and  is  a  discerner  of  the  thoughts  and  intents  of 
the  heart."  Then  if  you  will  keep  these  two 
thoughts  before  you,  you  will  quit  sinning  tonight. 
Kvery  sin  you  commit  you  will  have  to  meet  it 
somewhere,  and  settle  for  it.  Render  unto  Caesar 
the  things  that  are  Caesar's  and  unto  God  the 
things  that  are  God's.  So  said  our  blessed  Master. 
He  knows  how  you  live  and  he  will  show  you 
every  act  of  your  life,  and  you  will  have  to  settle 
for  it  somewhere.  If  not  here,  at  the  judgment, 
and  then  it  will  be  too  late  to  make  restitution. 

At  the  great  convention  in  Chicago,  where 
there  were  a  thousand  conversions  and  sanctifioa- 
tions,  men  paid  from  a  nickle  to  twelve  hundred 
dollars  in  making  restitution.  Boys  paid  a  niokle  to 
the  street  car  company  for  a  stolen  ride,  and  people 
paid  up  old  debts,  and  more  than  twenty -five 
hundred  dollars  were  paid  back  of  stolen  money. 

Last  summer  at  Sunset,  Texas,  a  converted — 
yes  a  sanctified — man  had  something  to  straighten 
up.  About  fifteen  years  ago  he  stole  a  water  bar 
rel,  and  had  forgotten  all  about  it.  But  he  went 
out  into  the  woods  and  got  down  to  pray  when  he 
heard  a  racket,  and  looking  up,  saw  a  water  barrel 
rolling  down  the  hill  at  him.  He  said,  "Lord 
what's  the  matter  with  me?"  And  he  supposed 
it  was  an  imagination,  and  went  further  down 
the  hollow  and  began  to  pray  again,  when  he 


116  SUNSHINE  AND   SMILES 

heard  a  racket  like  a  span  of  horses  running  away 
and  he  looked  up  and  to  his  surprise  it  was  the 
water  barrel  rolling  down  again.  And  then  he 
remembered  that  he  had  stolen  a  water  barrel  from 
his  neighbor  about  fifteen  years  before  that. 
He  came  back  to  the  camp  ground  and  confessed 
it  and  sent  the  man  one  dollar  for  the  barrel  and 
ten  per  cent  interest.  And  he  shouted  all  over  the 
camp  ground.  That  wasn't  much  you  say.  No, 
but  it  took  that  to  ease  his  conscience.  You've 
got  to  settle  here  in  this  country.  It's  much  easier 
to  settle  here  than  there.  But  I  started  out  to 
show  all  that  God  could  do  for  us.  We  read  in 
Romans  5  :16,  "For  if  by  one  man's  offense  death 
reigned  by  one,  much  more  they  which  receive 
abundance  of  grace  and  th»  gift  of  righteousness 
shall  reign  in  life  by  one  Jesus  Christ."  This 
shows  that  God  has  an  abundance  oi  grace.  And 
in  the  20th  verse,  we  read:  "Where  sin  abounded 
grace  did  much  more  abound."  This  shows  you 
law  and  grace.  The  law  is  like  an  electric  light 
to  light  up  the  city.  A  man  is  wandering  in  the 
darkness,  and  he  don't  know  where  he  is  at  nor  the 
direction  he  is  traveling,  but  suddenly  the  great 
electric  light  flashes  out  over  his  head  and  it 
locates  him.  It  shows  him  exactly  what  part  of 
the  city  he  is  in,  and  the  direction  he  is  traveling, 
and  the  filth  and  mud  on  the  streets ;  but  it  has  no 
power  to  stop  him  and  turn  him  around  and  start 
him  in  the  right  direction.  The  electric  light  here 


SUNSHINE  AND   SMILES  117 

takes  the  place  of  the  law.  The  law  will  locate 
and  show  you  just  where  you  are,  and  .through  the 
law  Fie  can  reveal  to  us  the  exceeding  sinfulness 
of  sin.  and  the  exceeding  richness  of  grace.  That 
is  a  beautiful  thought:  "That  where  sin  abounded, 
grace  did  much  more  abound."  There  is  more 
grace  than  sin.  The  plaster  is  bigger  than  the 
sore.  The  supply  is  greater  than  the  demand.  If 
there  is  a  piece  of  sin  on  you  as  big  as  my  hand  the 
Lord  has  a  piece  of  grace  as  big  as  a  bed  quilt  to 
spread  over  it,  or  if  there  is  a  spot  in  your  com 
munity  as  big  as  a  mud  hole  in  the  road  God  has  a 
piece  of  grace  as  big  as  a  six  hundred  and  forty 
acre  farm  to  spread  over  it.  So  now  we  see  he 
has  an  abundance  of  mercy,  of  pardon  and  grace. 
And  that  brings  us  to  another  thought.  Go  to 
Titus  3:  5-6  and  we  read:  "Not  by  my  works  of 
righteousness  which  we  have  done,  but  according 
to  his  mercy  he  saved  us,  by  the  washing  of  regen 
eration,  and  renewing  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  which  he 
shed  on  us  aoundantly  through  Jesus  Chriet  our 
Lord."  He  said  he  would  shed  the  Holy  Ghost  on 
us  abundantly,  and  would  cover  us  with  the  shadow 
of  his  wings,  and  give  us  a  river  to  swim  in.  We 
read  in  the  forty -seventh  chapter  of  Ezekiel  that 
he  saw  a  river  coming  out  from  under  the  throne 
of  God,  and  he  undertook  to  measure  it  and  he 
measured  a  thousand  cubits  and  it  was  up  to  his 
ankles ;  and  he  measured  a  thousand  cubits  further 
and  it  was  up  to  his  knees;  and  he  measured  a 


118  SUNSHINE  AND   SMILES 

thousand  cubits  further  and  it  was  up  to  hia  loins; 
and  he  measured  a  thousand  cubits  further  and  it 
was  a  river  that  no  man  could  cross  and  he  had 
water  to  swim  in.  God  has  an  abundance  of  just 
such  things  as  you  and  I  need,  and  some  of  you 
go  around  with  a  hungry  heart  and  a  sad  face 
when  you  ought  to  have  a  shine  on  your  face. 
My  friend,  why  don't  you  throw  away  your  spoon 
and  jump  into  the  river  and  let  the  Lord  satisfy 
the  cravings  of  your  hungry  soul?  When  I  was 
seeking  the  blessing  of  sanctification,  I  would 
pray  for  the  Lord  to  come  in  all  of  his  might  and 
power,  and  to  open  the  windows  of  Heaven,  and 
pour  out  floods  of  grace  upon  my  soul,  but  I  didn't 
know  how  great  God  was  and  how  small  1  was.  I 
talked  to  the  Lord  as  though  it  would  take  all 
Heaven  to  satisfy  me,  but  when  the  Lord  looked  at 
me  it  nearly  tickled  me  to  death,  and  he  just 
touched  me  and  I  had  to  holler,  "Hold  on  a  min 
ute."  It  seemed  that  God  wasted  enough  grace 
on  me  to  save  everybody  in  Texas.  Such  great 
billows  rolled  over  my  soul  that  it  seemed  that 
rivers  of  salvation  ran  out  of  the  clouds.  It  seem 
ed  to  me  that  I  was  a  minnow  in  the  Atlantic 
ocean.  It  is  beyond  the  comprehension  of  man. 
You  just  as  well  try  to  dip  the  Atlantic  ocean  dry 
with  a  tea  spoon  as  try  to  exhaust  the  resources  of 
God's  grace. 

We  next  notice  that  God  has  an  abundance  of 
life.     Our  blessed  Lord  said  in  John  10:  10:     "The 


SUNSHINE  AND   SMILES  119 

thief  cometh  not  but  for  to  steal,  and  to  kill,  and 
destroy;  but  I  am  come  that  they  might  have  life, 
and  that  they  might  have  it  more  abundantly." 
You  see  you  get  life  in  conversion,  and  in  sancti- 
fication  you  get  the  life  more  abundant.  We  don't 
know  what  we  have  got  when  we  tell  people  we 
are  sanctified.  It  will  roll  on  through  the  cease 
less  ages  and  will  shine,  and  will  get  deeper  and 
richer  and  sweeter.  The  blessing  of  sanctification 
is  as  deep  as  the  demand  of  fallen  humanity,  and 
is  as  broad  as  the  compassion  of  God,  and  as  high 
as  Keaven,  and  as  everlasting  as  the  Rock  of 
Ages,  and  as  sweet  as  honey,  and  will  fix  you  up 
for  two  worlds. 

When  you  get  sanctified  you  actually  live  in 
the  37th  Psalm.  He  says  in  the  7th  and  8th 
verses:  "How  excellent  is  thy  loving  kindness. 
O  God!  therefore  the  children  of  men  put  their 
trust  under  the  shadow  of  thy  wings.  They  shall 
be  abundantly  satisfied  with  the  fatness  of  thy 
house;  and  thou  shalt  make  the  drink  of  the  rivers 
of  thy  pleasures."  This  brings  you  under  the  wings 
of  God  himself.  Could  you  be  in  a  better  place? 
How  much  better  do  you  want?  Under  his  wings, 
in  a  house  of  fat  things,  drinking  from  a  river  of 
pleasure.  A  river  is  not  a  creek,  nor  is  it  a  spring 
branch.  Just  think  of  a  branch  widening  out  and 
making  a  creek,  and  then  being  turned  into  a 
river.  Think  of  a  fellow  drinking  from  the  Missis 
sippi  river  and  looking  for  the  hole.  Why  you  can't 


120  SUNSHINE  AND   SMILES 

miss  it.  It  don't  say  that  the  river  is  a3  big  as  the 
Mississippi,  and  it  don't  say  that  it  isn't.  I 
believe  it  is  greater.  I  believe  it  is  big  enough  for 
the  whole  world  to  drink  from,  and  it  reaches  from 
Adam  clear  down  to  Bud.  Isn't  that  wonderful? 
Get  under  his  wings  and  into  his  house  of  fat 
things.  That  don't  mean  oyster  soup  and  ice 
oream  suppera  and  strawberry  festivals;  but  where 
God  lives  and  rules  and  reigns,  and  peeple  are 
filled  with  a  flood  of  divine  love.  That's  the  river 
of  pleasure  that  abundantly  satisfies.  That  is  the 
blessing  which  the  world  is  seeking  today,  but 
they  go  to  the  wrong  place  for  it;  they  go  to  the 
devil's  house.  Of  course,  if  they  get  into  God's 
house  they  must  go  where  God  stays.  But  you 
talk  about  your  circumstances  and  say:  "If  you 
had  these  difficulties  I  have  to  meet  you  wouldn't 
talk  about  rivers  of  pleasure  and  houses  of  fat 
things."  "Well,  now  my  friend,  what  do  you  call  a 
circumstance?  Do  you  suppose  God  ever  saw  a 
circumstance  or  a  difficulty?  He  tells  us  what  he 
is  able  to  do.  But  you  say  it's  the  place  where 
you  live.  Oh,  no,  my  friend,  it  isn't  the  place  you 
are  at  that  makes  you  shout,  but  it  is  the  condition 
you  are  in.  It  isn't  what  people  say  about  you 
that  makes  you  happy,  it  is  what  God  knows  you 
to  be.  For  we  read  in  the  New  Testament:  "If 
any  man  be  in  Christ  Jesus  he  is  a  new  creature. 
Old  things  have  passed  away;  behold,  all  things 
are  become  new."  And  if  all  things  are  new  and 


SUNSHINE  AND   SMILES  121 

you  walk  up  the  street  and  meet  a  fellow  and  he 
slaps  you  on  the  side  of  the  head,  he  will  get  honey 
all  over  his  hands,  and  as  he  licks  it  off  he  will  get 
under  conviction  and  come  back  to  see  what  ailed 
you;  you  tell  him  and  he  will  want  the  same  thing. 
If  your  experience  has  juice  in  it,  it  will  have 
teeth,  and  if  it  has  teeth  it  will  bite,  and  if  it  bites 
of  course  it  will  get  hold  of  somebody,  and  he  will 
holler  and  when  he  hollers  you  will  have  him 
located,  and  then  you  will  know  where  to  work. 

Now,  this  leads  us  up  to  another  step.  We 
read  in  Jer.  33:  6,  where  he  is  speaking  of  the 
backslidings  of  the  people  and  the  city,  and  he 
says,  "Behold  I  will  bring  it  health  and  cure,  and 
I  will  cure  them,  and  will  reveal  unto  thee  the 
abundance  of  peace  and  truth."  I  suppose  peace 
and  truth  are  the  finest  ingredients  in  the  Christian 
life.  We  read  in  Isaiah  26:  3,  "Thou  wilt  keep 
him  in  perfect  peace  whose  mind  is  stayed  on  thee 
because  he  trusteth  in  thee."  We  read  again  in 
Psalms  119:  165.  "Great  peace  have  they  that 
love  thy  law,  and  nothing  shall  offend  them." 
This  brings  us  to  the  place  where  the  world  can't 
offend  us,  and  we  can  in  everything  give  thanks. 
But  you  say  there  are  some  things  that  you  can't 
be  thankful  for.  If  a  man  were  to  knock  you 
down  with  a  brick  bat,  you  couldn't  thank  God 
for  that.  Oh  yes,  my  friend,  you  could  thank  God 
that  you  didn't  knock  him  down,  and  that  would 
bring  you  out  ahead.  Others  say  they  could  not 


122  SUNSHINE   AND   SMILES 

thank  God  for  being  lied  about.  Why  yes,  my  friend, 
the  Book  says  the  liar  shall  take  his  part  in  hell, 
and  not  the  man  that  was  lied  on.  And  if  they 
He  on  you,  you  have  nothing  to  do  but  rejoice,  for 
Christ  said,  "Rejoice  and  be  exceeding  glad  for 
great  is  your  reward  in  Heaven,  for  so  persecuted 
they  the  prophets  which  were  before  you."  Now, 
Christ  says  again  in  John  14:  27:  "Peace  I  leave 
with  you;  my  peace  I  give  unto  you;  not  as  the 
world  giveth  give  I  unto  you.  Let  not  your  heart 
be  troubled,  neither  let  it  be  afraid."  And  again 
we  read  in  Phil.  4:  6-7,  Paul  says:  "Be  careful 
for  nothing,  but  in  everything  by  prayer  and  sup 
plication  with  thanksgiving  let  your  requests  be 
made  known  unto  God.  And  the  peace  of  God 
which  passeth  all  understanding  shall  keep  your 
hearts  and  minds  through  Christ  Jesus." 

There  you  have  got  peace  located.  The  un 
derstanding  is  in  the  head,  and  peace  in  the  heart, 
so  you  see  it  passes  right  by  the  understanding 
and  hits  you  in  the  heart.  But  you  say  that  is  not 
th»  correct  rendering.  Have  you  got  anything 
that  is  more  correct?  The  peace  that  passes 
understanding  runs  right  by  your  head,  and  a 
man's  head  is  nothing  but  a  know  on  the  end  of 
his  backbone  noway.  God  is  not  after  your  head, 
but  your  heart,  which  is  the  seat  of  your  affections. 
We  would  be  much  better  and  happier  if  we  would 
unload  our  head  religion  and  get  something  in  our 
hearts. 


SUNSHINE   AND   SMILES  128 

And  now,  friend,  we  have  had  an  abundance 
of  mercy,  an  abundance  of  pardon,  an  abundance 
of  grace,  an  abundance  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  an 
abundance  of  life,  an  abundance  of  satisfaction 
and  an  abundance  of  peace  and  truth.  And  now 
we  bring  you  to  an  abundance  of  love.  We  read 
in  Ephesians  3:  14-21:  "For  this  cause  I  bow  my 
knees  unto  the  Father  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  of 
whom  the  whole  family  in  Heaven  and  earth  is 
named,  that  he  would  grant  you,  according  to  the 
riches  of  his  glory,  to  be  strengthened  with  might 
by  the  spirit  in  the  inner  man ;  that  Christ  may 
dwell  in  your  hearts  by  faith;  that  ye  being  rooted 
and  grounded  in  love,  may  be  able  to  comprehead 
with  all  saints  what  is  the  breadth  and  length,  and 
depth  and  height;  and  to  know  the  love  of  Christ, 
which  passeth  knowledge,  that  ye  might  be  filled 
with  all  the  fullness  of  God.  Now  unto  him  that  ia 
able  to  do  exceeding  abundantly  above  all  that  we 
can  ask  or  think,  according  to  the  power  that 
worketh  in  us,  unto  him  be  glory  in  the  church  by 
Jesus  Christ  throughout  all  ages  world  without 
end.  Amen."  Well,  of  course  he  had  to  say 
"amen,"  there  was  nothing  else  to  say.  He 
reached  the  top  and  could  go  no  further.  He  had. 
you  filled  with  all  the  fullness  of  God  and  said  he 
was  able  to  do  exceeding  abundantly  above  all  we 
ask  or  think.  We  will  never  be  able  to  exhaust 
his  love.  He  takes  what  nobody  else  wants  and 
loves  and  saves  them.  His  great  loving-  heart  was 


124  SUNSHINE  AND   SMILES 

moved  with  compassion  for  me,  and  he  reached 
down  his  loving  arms  and  pulled  me  up,  and  put  a 
song  in  my  mouth  and  praises  in  my  heart,  and  it 
has  been  twenty-one  years  and  he  has  never 
thrown  up  my  mean  kin-folks  to  me  yet.  It  makes 
me  love  him  and  it  shows  him  to  be  a  God  of  love. 

One  other  thing  that  brings  us  to  a  place 
where  we  are  ready  for  Heaven.  Saint  Peter 
writes  in  Second  Peter  1:  11:  "For  an  entrance 
shall  be  ministered  unto  you  abundantly  into  the 
everlasting  kingdom  of  our  Lord  and  Savior  Jesus 
Christ."  So  we  have  an  abundant  entrance  into 
Heaven.  We  wont  have  to  hug  the  gate  post,  but 
with  our  wedding  garments  on  and  all  its  trim 
mings  we'll  go  in  and  run  up  the  streets,  probably 
a  mile  wide  and  fifteen  hundred  miles  long,  and 
jump  into  the  river  and  swim  across  and  climb  the 
tree  of  life,  the  fruit  of  which  is  as  big  as  your  two 
double  fists,  and  ripens  every  month  in  the  year. 
It's  without  peeling  on  it  or  seed  in  it  and  so  good 
that  it  melts  in  your  mouth.  I  dreamed  one  night 
of  eating  fruit  off  of  the  tree  of  life  and  it  was  so 
good  that  I  could  hardly  eat  Texas  grub  for  a  week 
afterwards. 

Now,  reader,  put  these  graces  all  together  and 
see  if  it  is  not  worth  while  to  trust  God  to  supply 
all  your  needs.  If  you  have  got  the  thing  and 
live  it  you  will  draw.  Christ  said:  "If  I  be  lifted 
up  I  will  draw  all  men  unto  me."  I  will  show  you 
the  difference  between  the  people  that  draw  and 


SUNSHINE  AND   SMILES  125 

those  who  do  not.  I  have  had  people  come  to  my 
house  and  set  down  and  talk  awhile,  inquire  into 
the  health  of  the  family  and  the  general  news  and 
when  they  would  leave  they  would  ask  us  to  come 
to  see  them,  and  we  would  ask  them  to  come  back, 
and  we  thought  but  little  of  it.  There  was  noth 
ing  peculiar  about  the  visit.  I  have  had  other 
people  to  visit  me  and  somehow  when  they  would 
come  to  the  door  I  would  find  myself  going  to  meet 
them,  bring  them  in  and  set  down  as  near  to  them 
as  I  could  get.  They  also  would  inquire  into  our 
health,  talk  to  us  of  the  goodness  of  God.  Before 
they  would  leave  they  would  get  down  and  pray 
with  us  and  you  could  feel  the  presence  of  the 
Lord  in  the  home.  When  they  would  get  up  to 
leave  they  would  walk  out  into  the  yard  and  I 
would  walk  right  along  by  them.  They  would 
walk  out  to  their  buggy  and  get  into  it.  I  would 
walk  up  between  the  hind  wheel  and  the  fore 
wheel  and  put  one  foot  upon  the  axle,  hold  the 
dashboard  and  talk  as  long  as  they  would  stay. 
When  they  would  turn  to  drive  away  I  would  stand 
and  watch  them  as  they  would  drive  off.  I'd  watch 
the  old  buggy  till  it  would  get  out  of  sight.  I'd 
walk  back  into  the  house  and  feel  a  little  sad 
some  way  and  would  wonder  what  ailed  me  and 
the  light  would  break  in  on  me  that  this  person 
had  been  holding  up  the  Lord  and  he  had  been 
drawing  me.  Now,  friends,  you  can  see  the  dif- 


126  SUNSHINE  AND   SMILES 

ference  between  these  two  visitors.  One  could 
draw  and  the  other  didn't.  The  man  that  draws 
can  fulfill  the  scripture  where  it  says,  "We  are  to 
be  all  things  unto  all  men  that  we  might  win 
some." 


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